Thousands of Ecuadorians flee their homes as gang violence worsens

For one grandmother, it was when bullets began hitting ⁠the rooftops of her neighbourhood that she decided she would have to leave the housing development ⁠where she had lived for nearly 20 years.
A sharp rise in fighting between gang factions in Ecuador has prompted thousands of families to flee and abandon their homes to the gangs, who strip the houses for drug money or use them to hide kidnapping victims, according to residents and police.
One of the areas that has been the site of the...