Gang members brandishing automatic weapons stormed Haiti’s main breadbasket town, killing at least 70 people and forcing more than 6,000 to flee, sending widespread shockwaves even in a country accustomed to outbreaks of violence. Gave.
More people were seriously injured in the early Thursday attack on Pont Sonde in the agricultural region of Artibonite in western Haiti. Grand Griff gang leader Lacson Eran took responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in retaliation for the passivity of civilians while police and vigilantes killed soldiers.
The attack caused about 6,270 people to flee their homes, according to the U.N. migration agency. Most of these are being cared for by families living in nearby Saint-Marc and other towns, while others are staying in makeshift camps.
Local authorities said gang members torched dozens of homes and vehicles in the Caribbean nation’s deadliest attack in recent years, with many massacres and little justice for the victims. They became one.
“This heinous crime against defenseless women, men and children is not only an attack on the victims, but on all of Haiti,” Prime Minister Garry Conille said in X, adding that security forces were reinforcing the area. added.
A Haitian National Police spokesperson told Reuters on Friday night that the police chief in charge of the Artibonite police station had been replaced.
“For now, reinforcements are on the ground to contain the situation and security forces are under control,” the spokesperson said.
The killing is the latest sign of worsening conflict in Haiti. In Haiti, armed groups control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have spread to neighboring areas, fueling hunger and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Promised international aid continues to be delayed, and neighboring countries are forcibly returning migrants to the country.
Bertido Horace, a spokesman for the Dialogue and Reconciliation Committee to Save the Artibonite Valley, told Reuters that “the gang did not encounter any resistance” and said he probably expected to be outgunned by gang members. He added that a police officer remained at the station.
Horace said an armored truck stationed in nearby Berrett was also unable to be dispatched, adding that two members of her own family were injured in the attack.
Horace said many victims were shot in the head when gang members went door to door. “They could shoot anyone, and everyone was running away everywhere. They were walking, shooting people, killing people, burning people, burning houses, burning cars.”
Human rights group RNDDH said the death toll could be even higher, as entire families were wiped out. “At the time of writing, loved ones have not yet been able to retrieve the bodies, which are scattered on the ground,” the report said.
Rumors have been circulating for two months that the massacre could be in retaliation for residents’ cooperation with vigilante groups who stopped a money extortion attempt on the national highway that passes through the town, the RNDDH said.
“The Pong Zhonde massacre could have been avoided if the funds allocated to the intelligence services of various state agencies had been utilized effectively,” the report said.
Artibonite has been the scene of some of the worst violence outside the capital, and residents have long called for greater protection. Many of the residents of Pont Sonde were evacuated to Saint-Marc, where an already underfunded public hospital is struggling to treat the injured.
The Gran Griff gang is based in the area and has been accused of crimes including mass kidnapping, rape, murder, hijacking, forced eviction of farmers from their land, and child recruitment. Mr. Eran was added to the United Nations sanctions list last month.
In an audio message shared on social media Thursday, Elan blamed the town’s victims and the state for the gang attack.
According to the United Nations, no progress has been made regarding mass murders committed since 2021 or several mass atrocities since 2017.
Police have been implicated in several mass murders. The gang’s leader, former police officer Jimmy “Barbeque” Chéridier, was accused by the United Nations of planning and participating in the murder of 71 civilians in the capital’s La Saline port district in 2018.
Pon Sonde is a major rice producer located in Haiti’s breadbasket.
The World Food Program, which operates in the region, says soaring food prices and food shortages have left five million people in Port-au-Prince acutely food insecure and thousands starving. They accuse gangs of stealing property and forcing workers off their land. level hunger.
Meanwhile, the number of internally displaced people from the conflict has soared to more than 700,000, and a long-delayed UN-backed mission tasked with helping cash-strapped police restore order has been partially deployed. Despite this, it has almost doubled in half a year.
The United Nations refugee agency warned on Friday of dire shortages of food and medical supplies, with gangs disrupting humanitarian aid shipments.
Haiti has so far received only a portion of promised resources, and efforts to introduce a formal UN peacekeeping mission have faltered. Although several countries have made formal pledges, only about 400 police officers have been sent so far, most of them from Kenya.
Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday reiterated his call for further support for the mission.
At the end of September, the United Nations estimated that 3,661 people had been killed in gang violence since January. The organization believes the gangs are mainly armed with guns trafficked from the United States.
Meanwhile, neighboring countries such as the Dominican Republic and the United States continue to deport migrants to Haiti.
