THE leader of Haiti’s transitional presidential council tried to calm fears on Thursday over rampant gang violence by acknowledging that the country had “become hell for everyone” and promising new measures to stop the bloodshed.

Fritz Alphonse Jean spoke a day after gunfire erupted in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as thousands of protesters demanding an end to gang violence clashed with police outside the offices of the council and the prime minister. 

It was the biggest protest held since the council was installed a year ago.

Mr Jean said: “Haitian people, you’ve spoken, and we’ve heard you. 

“We understand your misery. We know your pain and your suffering.”

More than 4,200 people have been reported killed across Haiti from July to February, and another 1,356 were injured, according to the United Nations.

Recent gang violence also left more than 60,000 people homeless in one month alone, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration.

Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said: “This national address comes at a decisive moment for the transitional government.

“Protesters from various parts of the capital deliberately marched toward key government buildings to express their frustration.”

He noted that Mr Jean’s address marked the first anniversary of the political agreement that established the new transitional government’s structure and objectives. 

Since then, cohesion between political parties involved in creating that government “has now largely collapsed,” Mr Da Rin said.

“The groups that originally supported this government are now calling for a change in leadership,” he noted.

Mr Jean said the council would take “important measures” to help quell the persistent violence, including setting aside a special budget and incorporating agents from an armed state environmental group known as BSAP.

“The council asks the prime minister and the police to take these measures without delay,” Jean said. 

“We are telling everyone in this government that we are at war,” he added.