Haitian police are trying to regain control of the capital’s main port, officials said on Saturday, after they killed several “bandits” while conducting a major operation in the stronghold of gang leader Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier.

Special forces, soldiers and police officers carried out a raid against gangs in Bas-Delmas on Friday evening with the aim of unblocking a road, said Lionel Lazarre of the Haitian police union.

Several “bandits” were killed, he said, without providing more details.

Another operation was underway on Saturday morning as law enforcement officers attempted to regain control of the capital’s main port, where gang members had looted several containers, a source at the port told AFP.

The port has been shut since March 7 because of the violence.

The operation came as attacks continued in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on Friday in the aftermath of the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Violence targeted the airport and a top police official’s home, while residents mounted roadblocks in two spots both to impede the criminal gangs and signal their own frustration, an AFP reporter said.

The country’s unelected prime minister said he would step down on Monday as he faced international pressure while stranded in Puerto Rico, as an escalation of fighting in the capital prevented him from returning home.

His resignation is pending the appointment of an interim replacement chosen by a transition council, but the members of the council have yet to be decided. Some political groups have rejected the plan or been unable to unite their factions.

Local outlet Gazette Haiti reported that meetings on a compromise were set to take place on Saturday.

Cherizier this week threatened politicians who take part in the council and said Henry’s resignation marked just “a first step in the battle” for the Caribbean nation.

The gang alliance leader has called for the unelected and largely absent government to be toppled.

The 46-year-old was formerly an officer of the Haitian National Police force. He is alleged by the United Nations to have played a role in multiple massacres, including the killing of over 70 people in 2018, when over 400 homes in the capital’s La Saline neighbourhood were set on fire.

Cherizier, who is originally from the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince, went on to announce the creation in 2020 of a gang alliance called G9 Family and Allies.

“Ariel Henry resigned but we are still in political distress,” said Port-au-Prince resident Claude Atilus. “We must take our destiny into our own hands. I want the political players to rise to the task and commit themselves to organising the country.”

“The situation is not good for us,” said vendor Jean-Phillipe Jean-Louis, adding he was exhausted, prices were exorbitant and working on the streets was dangerous.

The United Nations’ children’s fund has warned of record hunger and life-threatening malnutrition concentrated in the capital’s poorest, most dangerous and busiest neighbourhoods, with one in four children nationwide suffering chronic malnutrition.

Some 1.4 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, and more than 4 million require food aid, sometimes eating only once a day or nothing at all, aid groups say.