The violence is damaging Haiti’s fragile economy and causing food and water shortages.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Rotten fruit, wilted vegetables, empty water jugs and used gas canisters now fill stores and stalls that serve Haiti’s poor – a consequence of relentless gang attacks that have paralyzed the country for more than ‘a week and left it with a decrease in stocks of basic products. .

Terrifying violence pitting anti-government gangs against police in the streets has crippled the fragile economy and made livelihoods extremely difficult for many of the country’s most vulnerable people.

The capital’s main port, Port-au-Prince, has closed, blocking dozens of containers filled with food and medical supplies at a time when U.N. officials say half of the more than 11 million people The country’s inhabitants do not have enough to eat, and 1.4 million people are dying of hunger.

Grocery stores in the capital’s upscale neighborhoods remain stocked, but their products are out of reach of most in a country where most people earn less than $2 a day.

“People are desperate for water,” said Jean Gérald, who recently sold blackened tomatoes and shriveled green onions, confident they would sell out quickly because food is so scarce in parts of Port-au-Prince. . “Because of gang violence, people are going to go hungry. »

Next to him were rows of empty jugs that he had been unable to refill because the violence had forced one of the country’s major bottled water operators to close its doors.

Gerald found that he was running out of things to sell because the depot where he usually buys rice, oil, beans, powdered milk and bread had been burned and its owner kidnapped.

As he spoke, gunshots echoed in the distance.

Dozens of people have been killed and more than 15,000 forced from their homes since coordinated gang attacks began on February 29, while Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Kenya to press for the deployment of a police force from the UN-backed East African country. to fight gangs in Haiti. However, a Kenyan court ruled in January that such a deployment would be unconstitutional.

As gangs rampaged through Port-au-Prince, freeing more than 4,000 inmates from the country’s two largest prisons, attacking its main airport and burning police stations, it was Haiti’s least powerful who had the most suffered.

“It’s a pretty bad situation,” said Mike Ballard, director of intelligence at Global Guardian, an international security firm based in Virginia. “Gangs are trying to fill a power vacuum. »

Schools, banks and most government agencies remain closed. Gas stations have also closed their doors, and the few who can afford to pay $9 a gallon — more than double the usual rate — have flocked to the black market.

Street vendors are gradually losing their means of subsistence and wondering how they will be able to feed their families.

Michel Jean, 45, sat Thursday next to the makeshift metal shack where he usually sells rice, beans, milk and toilet paper.

“If you look inside, there’s nothing,” he said, pointing to a few cans of sardines. “I don’t know how long this will last. I hope this crisis will be over and people can return to their normal lives.”

This seems unlikely at the moment.

Henry, who faces calls to resign or form a transition council, still cannot return home. He arrived in Puerto Rico on Tuesday after being unable to land in the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti. The Dominican government said it lacked a required flight plan because it closed its country’s airspace with Haiti.

Meanwhile, Haitian authorities extended a state of emergency and nighttime curfew on Thursday as gangs continued to attack key state institutions.

“They’re basically saying they’re ready to take power,” said Robert Fatton, a Haitian political expert at the University of Virginia, referring to the gangs. “I think we should take them pretty seriously.”

Valdo Cene, 38, worries that elderly people are dying in their homes, with some unable to go out to get food and water because gangs control their neighborhoods.

Cene sold propane, which many use for cooking. But he has been unable to get supplies because gangs are blocking roads and taking control of more territory, including parts of Canaan, a community north of Port-au-Prince.

“The whole region is suffering,” he said. “They don’t have access to water. They don’t get propane.

Cene said he and his family lived on their leftover rice, beans, sardines and plantains, as well as a handful of yams and carrots. He wonders when he will be able to earn a living again.

As more people become unemployed, street vendors are selling smaller quantities of essential goods.

On a recent afternoon, Gerald poured less than a cup of cooking oil into an old water bottle and handed it to a young boy. It was all the boy’s family could afford, and not enough for Gerald to continue earning a living.

“If a foreign force comes, it will give small people like me a chance to live and continue fighting for a better future,” he said.

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.