The death toll from a grisly attack Thursday on a small Haitian town by the heavily armed Gran Grif gang has risen to at least 70, the UN human rights office said Friday, adding that women and children were among those killed.
Issued on: 04/10/2024 -
Kenyan police officers patrol as the country is facing emergency food insecurity while immersed in a social and political crisis, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti October 3, 2024.
© Jean Feguens Regala, Reuters
By: NEWS WIRES
The tally of victims killed in this week's brutal attack on a small town in central Haiti by heavily armed gang members has risen to at least 70, the U.N. human rights office said Friday.
Bodies lay strewn on the streets of Pont-Sondé following Thursday’s attack in the Artibonite region, many of them killed by a shot to the head, Bertide Harace, spokeswoman for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite, told Magik 9 radio station.
Initial estimates put the number of those killed to 20 people, but activists and government officials have been gradually accessing areas of the town and discovering more bodies. Among the victims is a young mother, her newborn baby and a midwife, Herace said.
“We are horrified by Thursday’s gang attacks,” the U.N. Human Rights Office of the Commissioner said in a statement.
It said 10 women and three infants were among those killed, and at least 16 others seriously injured, including two gang members hit during an exchange with police.
The office said gang members reportedly set fire to at least 45 homes and 34 cars.
The motive remains unclear for what was one of the biggest massacres in the central region in recent years. Attacks of that kind have taken place in the capital of Port-au-Prince, 80% of which is controlled by gangs, and they typically are linked to turf wars, with gang members targeting civilians in areas controlled by rivals. But Pont-Sondé is considered part of Gran Grif's own territory.
The gang was created after former Haitian legislator Prophane Victor began arming young men in the area to secure his election and control over the Artibonite region nearly a decade ago, according to a U.N. report.
Both Victor and the leader of Gran Grif, Luckson Elan, were sanctioned by the U.S. last month.
The gang attacked Pont-Sondé before dawn on Thursday and encountered little resistance, Herace said, though she said that contrary to some reports, police officers did try to repel the gang.
“The gang had total control of the area,” Herace said.
Haiti’s government has deployed an elite police unit based in the capital of Port-au-Prince to Pont-Sondé following the attack and sent medical supplies to help the area’s lone hospital overwhelmed by dozens of people injured.
“This heinous crime, perpetrated against defenseless women, men, and children, is not only an attack on these victims, but on the entire Haitian nation,” Prime Minister Garry Conille said in a statement Friday.
Gang violence across Artibonite, which produces much of Haiti’s food, has increased in recent years.
In January 2023, the Gran Grif gang was accused of attacking a police station in Liancourt, located near Pont-Sondé, and killing at least six officers. Violence unleashed by the gang also forced the closure of a hospital in February 2023 that serves more than 700,000 people.
(AP)
Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
Port-au-Prince (AFP) – The Haitian government has deployed specialist anti-gang police units, it said Friday, after an apparent massacre northwest of Port-au-Prince that the United Nations said left at least 70 dead.
Issued on: 04/10/2024 -
Jamaican soldiers and police officers arrive at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on September 12, 2024, as part of an international policing mission © Clarens SIFFROY / AFP
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Carried out early Thursday in the town of Pont Sonde, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, the attack saw scores of houses and vehicles torched after gang members opened fire.
The killings come as an international policing mission, led by Kenyan forces, attempts to restore government control in Haiti, where armed gangs have seized swaths of the capital and countryside and earlier this year helped push out the country's leader.
"Members of the Gran Grif gang used automatic rifles to shoot at the population, killing at least 70 people, among them about 10 women and three infants," UN Human Rights Office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement Friday.
The Haitian Prime Minister's office said in a statement that "this latest act of violence, targeting innocent civilians, is unacceptable and demands an urgent, rigorous and coordinated response from the state."
The embattled Haitian National Police would be "stepping up its efforts," the statement said, adding "agents from the Temporary Anti-Gang Unit (UTAG) have been deployed as reinforcements to back up teams already on the ground."
A spokeswoman for a local civil society group told Haitian media that the attack came after Gran Grif leader Luckson Elan had issued threats against people refusing to pay the group tolls to use a nearby highway.
"They executed dozens of residents," Bertide Horace told radio station Magik 9. "Almost all of the victims were shot in the head."
"Police officers stationed nearby, apparently understaffed, offered no resistance to the criminals, preferring to take cover," she said.
At least 16 people were seriously injured, the UN said, including two gang members shot by police.
The gang reportedly set fire to at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles, it added, forcing many residents to flee.
Kenyan-led policing mission
Additional security forces, supported by the Kenyan-led international policing mission deployed to the country, were sent to Pont Sonde overnight Thursday into Friday, the prime minister's office added.
The attack occurred at 3:00 am Thursday, it said.
Prime Minister Garry Conille added that the "heinous crime, perpetrated against defenseless women, men and children, is not only an attack on these victims, but on the entire Haitian nation."
Last week, the UN human rights office said more than 3,600 people had been killed already this year in "senseless" gang violence in the country.
Haiti has for years been beset by compounding political, humanitarian and gang crises, with armed groups rising up to push out then-prime minister Ariel Henry earlier this year in an effort that saw attacks on the international airport and police stations.
Many politicians are intertwined with armed groups: last week, the US Treasury announced sanctions against a member of parliament from the Artibonite Department, where Pont Sonde is located, for allegedly helping form the Gran Grif gang to aid in his 2016 election.
Unelected and unpopular -- and unable to restore order -- Henry resigned, and a transitional government with Conille as prime minister was put in place, backed by the international community.
That government is mandated to restore security and lead the country to its first polls since 2016.
© 2024 AFP
Port-au-Prince (AFP) – The Haitian government has deployed specialist anti-gang police units, it said Friday, after an apparent massacre northwest of Port-au-Prince that the United Nations said left at least 70 dead.
Issued on: 04/10/2024 -
Jamaican soldiers and police officers arrive at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on September 12, 2024, as part of an international policing mission © Clarens SIFFROY / AFPAdvertising
Carried out early Thursday in the town of Pont Sonde, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, the attack saw scores of houses and vehicles torched after gang members opened fire.
The killings come as an international policing mission, led by Kenyan forces, attempts to restore government control in Haiti, where armed gangs have seized swaths of the capital and countryside and earlier this year helped push out the country's leader.
"Members of the Gran Grif gang used automatic rifles to shoot at the population, killing at least 70 people, among them about 10 women and three infants," UN Human Rights Office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement Friday.
The Haitian Prime Minister's office said in a statement that "this latest act of violence, targeting innocent civilians, is unacceptable and demands an urgent, rigorous and coordinated response from the state."
The embattled Haitian National Police would be "stepping up its efforts," the statement said, adding "agents from the Temporary Anti-Gang Unit (UTAG) have been deployed as reinforcements to back up teams already on the ground."
A spokeswoman for a local civil society group told Haitian media that the attack came after Gran Grif leader Luckson Elan had issued threats against people refusing to pay the group tolls to use a nearby highway.
"They executed dozens of residents," Bertide Horace told radio station Magik 9. "Almost all of the victims were shot in the head."
"Police officers stationed nearby, apparently understaffed, offered no resistance to the criminals, preferring to take cover," she said.
At least 16 people were seriously injured, the UN said, including two gang members shot by police.
The gang reportedly set fire to at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles, it added, forcing many residents to flee.
Kenyan-led policing mission
Additional security forces, supported by the Kenyan-led international policing mission deployed to the country, were sent to Pont Sonde overnight Thursday into Friday, the prime minister's office added.
The attack occurred at 3:00 am Thursday, it said.
Prime Minister Garry Conille added that the "heinous crime, perpetrated against defenseless women, men and children, is not only an attack on these victims, but on the entire Haitian nation."
Last week, the UN human rights office said more than 3,600 people had been killed already this year in "senseless" gang violence in the country.
Haiti has for years been beset by compounding political, humanitarian and gang crises, with armed groups rising up to push out then-prime minister Ariel Henry earlier this year in an effort that saw attacks on the international airport and police stations.
Many politicians are intertwined with armed groups: last week, the US Treasury announced sanctions against a member of parliament from the Artibonite Department, where Pont Sonde is located, for allegedly helping form the Gran Grif gang to aid in his 2016 election.
Unelected and unpopular -- and unable to restore order -- Henry resigned, and a transitional government with Conille as prime minister was put in place, backed by the international community.
That government is mandated to restore security and lead the country to its first polls since 2016.
© 2024 AFP
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