At around 2:00 am police stopped a truck carrying gang members in the wealthy suburb of Petion-Ville, while a bus ferrying gang members was intercepted in the city center, Haitian National Police spokesman Lionel Lazarre said.

Police opened fire in both encounters, killing 10, and then chased down those who fled with the help of self-defense groups, formed by residents opposed to the gangs and their violent rule over swaths of the country.

Last year, in a gruesome chapter of the vigilante reprisals, a dozen alleged gang members were stoned and burned alive by residents in Port-au-Prince.

Well-armed gangs control some 80 percent of the city, routinely targeting civilians despite a Kenyan-led international force that has been deployed to help the outgunned police restore some government order.

The Haitian capital has seen renewed fighting in the last week from Viv Ansanm, an alliance of gangs that in February helped oust former prime minister Ariel Henry.

On Monday, Viv Ansanm spokesman Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherisier, a notorious gang leader, called for the resignation of the transitional government currently leading the country.

bur-nro/bgs

© Agence France-Presse