Frustrated men gathered at the weekend brandishing machetes and clubs, ready to fight for a town they said the world has forgotten.
‘We don’t understand why everything is going to Port-au-Prince, because Leogane was broken too,’ cried one survivor.
Jean Ky Louis, a shop worker, said: ‘People are dying of starvation, even the survivors. We have nothing.’
Around 3,000 inmates of the national jail have escaped onto the streets after the quake after overpowering the guards and burning prison records.
Many, including a hardened killer known only as ‘Blade’, have reformed their violent gangs, brandishing weapons stripped from prison guards.
President Rene Preval said: ‘We have 2,000 police in Port-au-Prince and 3,000 bandits escaped from prison. This gives you an idea of how bad the situation is.’
The lynching of a man came after police brought a man to Petionville, a once wealthy area of the capital, and told a crowd he had been arrested for looting.
Vigilante justice took over and he was hanged before his body was dragged through the streets and set on fire under a heap of rubbish.
In another incident, police opened fire on hundreds of rioters yesterday, killing at least one of them as they ransacked a market.
A man in his 30s was shot in the head as he grabbed food. Witnesses said another looter quickly snatched the rucksack off the dead man’s back as clashes continued and police reinforcements descended on the area armed with pump-action shotguns and assault rifles.
