The pop of automatic weapons echoed throughout Solino on Thursday as thick columns of black smoke rose above the once peaceful neighborhood where frantic residents kept calling radio stations asking for help.
Lita Saintil, a 52-year-old street vendor, told The Associated Press that she fled Solino on Thursday with her teenage nephew after being trapped in her house for hours by incessant gunfire.
Another resident, Nenel Volme, told the AP that he was chatting with a friend near his house on Sunday when gunfire erupted and a bullet struck a bone in his right hand.
Nearby communities spooked by the ongoing violence in Solino began erecting barricades on Thursday using rocks, trucks, tires and even banana trees to prevent gangs from entering.
One man near a barricade in Canape Vert said that he had been following the protests organized earlier this week by supporters of former rebel leader Guy Philippe, who has pledged a revolution to drive out gangs.
Haiti is awaiting the deployment of a foreign armed force led by Kenya to help quell gang violence that was approved by the U.N. Security Council in October.
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