Port-au-Prince, Haiti ? U.N. peacekeepers Friday found the bodies of 16 people believed killed in a surge of gang violence, the latest sign the Caribbean nation’s capital may be slipping back into disorder after months of relative calm.

The troops from Sri Lanka found the bodies in the southern Port-au-Prince slum of Martissant, a U.N. statement said. The slum was the site of a recent spate of gunbattles between warring gangs.

The victims apparently were shot to death in an hourslong gunfight among Haitian gang members battling for control of the area, said Pierre Esperance, a local human rights activist.