Sunday, October 06, 2024 - Gang members carrying automatic rifles stormed through a town in Haiti, killing at least 70 and forcing over 6,000 to flee.
More people were severely injured in the attack in the early
hours of Thursday, October 3, at Pont-Sonde, in the agricultural region of
Artibonite in western Haiti.
Gran Grif gang leader Luckson Elan took responsibility for
the massacre, saying it was in retaliation for civilians remaining passive
while police and vigilante groups killed his soldiers.
A video shared online shows pedestrians running for dear
life alongside bike riders who were also trying to escape.
About 6,270 people had fled their homes due to the attacks,
the U.N. migration agency said. Most of these are being sheltered by families
living in nearby Saint-Marc and other towns, while others are staying in
makeshift camps.
The gang members set fire to dozens of homes and vehicles,
local authorities said.
"This odious crime against defenceless women, men and
children is not only an attack against victims but against the entire Haitian
nation," Prime Minister Garry Conille said on X, adding that security
forces were reinforcing the area.
A spokesperson for Haiti's national police told Reuters on
Friday evening, October 4, that the director of police in charge of the
Artibonite department had been replaced.
"For now, reinforcements are at the location to contain
the situation and security forces are in control," the spokesperson said.
"The gang did not meet any resistance," Bertide
Horace, spokesperson from the Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission to Save
the Artibonite Valley, told Reuters, adding that police officers remained in
their station, perhaps thinking they would be outgunned by the gang members.
Many victims were shot in the head as gang members went
house to house, Horace said. "They were left to shoot anybody, everybody
was running everywhere. They were walking, shooting people, killing people,
burning people, burning homes, burning cars."
Rights organization RNDDH said the d3ath toll was likely
higher as entire families had been wiped out.
"At the time of writing, corpses are strewn on the
ground as their loved ones have not yet been able to recover them," it
said in a report.
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