PONSONDE, Haiti (AP) – At night, while families were asleep, dozens of gang members, armed with knives and assault rifles, crept toward the small town of Ponsonde in central Haiti.
The gang drove from nearby Sabian, abandoned them halfway and climbed into canoes for the final distance to quietly approach.
Gunshots and screams woke the town. Those who were not shot were stabbed. The fire destroyed the houses.
“They tried to kill everyone,” said survivor Gina Joseph.
The Grand Griff gang, angered by the self-defense organization’s efforts to limit the gang’s activities in Pon Zonde and prevent them from making money with makeshift tolls recently installed on nearby roads, has been killing babies, young mothers, Elderly people and entire families were killed. road.
Germain Rivaldo, wounded by gunfire in an armed group attack, lies in a bed at St. Nicholas Hospital in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oderin Joseph)
Charit Charles, who was shot and wounded in an armed group attack, sits in her bed at St. Nicholas Hospital in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oderin Joseph)
People displaced by an armed group attack rest at the Antoinette Dessalines National School, a temporary evacuation center in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, October 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oderin Joseph)
After Thursday’s attack, the gang fled on foot through nearby rice fields, leaving more than 70 bodies scattered across the town.
It was the largest massacre in recent history in the once peaceful central region of Haiti. Thousands of people are now without jobs, homes and families and face an uncertain future.
Crouching in the hallway next to his home as smoke and gunfire filled the air, Jameson Fermilas later joined more than 6,000 other survivors who had walked for hours to safety.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Sonise Molino, 60, another participant. “We have nowhere to go.”
People displaced by an armed attack receive food from a non-governmental organization in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, October 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
People who are hungry, thirsty, and homeless.
Thousands walked west to the coastal city of Saint-Marc. Days after the massacre, crowds of men, women, and children gathered around a Good Samaritan standing on top of a car and handing out food and drink.
The newly homeless flocked to churches, schools, and shaded public squares. Those lucky enough to receive food sat on the dusty curb to eat. At night, they curled up on the concrete floor and tried to sleep.
Mayor Miriam Fievre met with survivors and said: “These deaths are unimaginable.”
The majority of the 6,270 people who became homeless found temporary shelter with relatives living nearby, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.
But more than 750 people have nowhere to go, adding to the more than 700,000 people already made homeless by gang violence across Haiti in recent years.
Inside the school, which had become a temporary evacuation center, a mother was leaning against a blackboard, staring off into the distance as she slowly stroked the back of her sleeping baby.
A motorist transports an empty casket to a morgue for the funeral of a person killed the previous week in a gang attack in the town of Pon Sonde, Haiti, Monday, October 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oderin Joseph)
“Message sent”
Despite gang violence on the rise in recent years, a massacre on the scale of Pon Sonde was once unheard of in central Haiti. Such massacres have only been reported in the capital, Port-au-Prince, 80% of which is under gang control.
But things changed nearly a decade ago when former parliamentarian Profan Victor began arming young people to secure elections and control the region. According to the United Nations, this led to the creation of the Grand Griff Gang, which controls Savien, Pon Zonde and other locations in the Artibonite region.
Victor and Grand Griff leader Lacson Eran were sanctioned by the United States last month. Mr. Elan has also been sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, which describes Gran Griff as the “largest and most powerful” gang in the Artibonites, with 157 He pointed out that he had committed nine mass kidnappings, including of people.
During that time, Elan allegedly killed a woman who refused to have sex with him, according to the United Nations.
The gang, whose name means “big claws,” is one of the highest-ranking child recruiters in Haiti, according to the United Nations.
Grand Grief is one of at least 20 criminal organizations operating in Artibonite, where much of Haiti’s rice and other crops are produced. More than 22,000 people have been forced to flee in recent years as armed groups target farmers and steal crops and livestock, the United Nations said, calling authorities’ response “inadequate and inconsistent.”
People raise their arms as they pass a police station in Ponsonde, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, days after a gang attack on the town. (AP Photo/Oderin Joseph)
Romain Le Coeur, senior Haiti expert for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said in an interview on Monday that last week’s massacre was linked to other gangs, despite a new United Nations-backed mission operating in Haiti. He said he was concerned about the impact it would have on
“This is a message that they are more powerful than other countries and are prepared to use brutal force against their people to keep their territorial power and economic control intact,” he said.
Le Coeur noted that missions led by the Haitian National Police and the Kenyan Police are struggling because they operate only in Port-au-Prince.
“Opening multiple fronts will be even more difficult,” he says. “This is a big challenge for the government right now.”
Since the massacre, the Haitian government has deployed armored vehicles, elite police officers and medical supplies to Pont Sonde and Saint-Marc, and Prime Minister Gary Conil visited isolated hospitals filled with injured patients.
On Monday morning, police were still attempting to enter the Pong Zonde area, but SDF members who remained in town refused to talk. The normally lively main street was almost empty. A gunshot rang out in the distance.
Exile junior, who was shot and wounded in an armed group attack, sits in his bed at St. Nicholas Hospital in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, October 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oderin Joseph)
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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
