Two men were killed Monday in northern Haiti in clashes with UN peacekeepers, as anger turned to violence over a cholera outbreak that has claimed nearly 1,000 lives, officials said.The body of a 20-year-old man was found in front of a base of the UN Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in Quartier-Morin, on the outskirts of the country's second city of Cap-Haitien, local officials said.
It was the scene of violent clashes earlier between demonstrators angry at the UN mission and how officials have allowed Haiti's spiraling cholera crisis to get out of hand since it broke out a month ago. UN peacekeepers said they fired in self-defense.
"At first (the blue helmets) fired to disperse the crowds, and then later, I have the impression they fired on a man," local official Bimps Noel said.
The young man was shot in the back, the official said, noting that the "UN tanks were hit by stones."
"There was a demonstrator who had a weapon and fired at a soldier, and the soldier returned fire in legitimate self-defense," said MINUSTAH spokesman Vicenzo Pugliese. "The soldier was not injured."
Another Haitian young man was killed by gunfire on a street in Cap-Haitien, amid the clashes, a police source said.
In Cap-Haitien, doctors and police said around a dozen people were being treated for bullet wounds, with some in serious condition.
