Haiti violence: Haitians struggle to bury loved ones as killings surge

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Dressed in black and white, the crowd of angry teenagers squeezed into a narrow street in Haiti’s capital.

They stopped in front of a cemetery and hoisted a coffin onto their shoulders, tears rolling down some faces.

“Viv Ansanm manje li!” they chanted loudly in Haitian Creole as they walked to and fro, the coffin swaying gently with their 16-year-old friend inside.

Their chant accused a gang coalition called Live Together of killing Jhon-Roselet Joseph. He was struck by a stray bullet earlier this month in his community of Solino, which gunmen have repeatedly attacked.

Finding closure for loved ones killed by gangs on a relentless rampage through Haiti’s capital and beyond is growing harder day by day in a country where burial rituals are sacred and the dead venerated.

More than 2,500 people were killed or injured in just the first three months of the year, according to the United Nations.