Haitian gang leader vows to 'fight' prime minister

Heavy gunfire and traffic disruptions were seen in some areas of Haiti's capital, where more people fled homes close to the fighting as burnt buses lay on the streets and burning barricades filled the air with smoke.

"The battle will last as long as it needs to. We will keep fighting Ariel Henry. To avoid collateral damage, keep the kids at home," gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, said at a media conference on Friday.

Cherizier is a former police officer who heads an alliance of gangs and disrupted the country when he blocked its biggest oil terminal in 2022.

He has faced sanctions from the United Nations and the US Department of Treasury.

By late Friday, there were reports armed men had attempted to take control of the capital's main container port as gangs threatened to attack more of the city's police stations.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify these reports.

A video, meanwhile, went viral on social media appearing to show two murdered policemen, which police union leader Lionel Lazare told Reuters depicted the killing of some of the four officers who were slain on Thursday.

In a statement, the prime minister's office said it was "outraged by the acts of violence and terror orchestrated by armed bandits", and expressed condolences to victims' families, saying the government would continue to work to resolve the conflict.

Violence ramped up during Henry's visit to Kenya this week.

The two countries signed earlier in the day a security deal that Nairobi hopes will satisfy a domestic court's objections to its plan to send 1000 police officers to lead a UN-approved mission aimed at tackling gang violence in Haiti.

Henry had previously been in Guyana for a regional Caribbean summit, during which he told leaders he would hold elections by August 2025, after postponing an earlier pledge due to the insecurity.

Henry came to power after the 2021 assassination of the country's last president.

Australian Associated Press