At least 70 people dead in gang attack in Haiti – DNyuz

At least 70 people – including 10 women and three babies – were killed Thursday in a gang attack in central Haiti that sent hundreds running for their lives, presenting a new challenge for international security forces deployed in Haiti since June. according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.

The attack took place at about 3 a.m. in Pont-Sondé, about 90 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince, the capital. The city is in the Artibonite department, a major agricultural region where gang violence has increased sharply, the health ministry said.

Gang members reportedly set fire to at least 45 homes and 34 vehicles, forcing some residents to flee, a UN statement said, calling for more international security assistance to Haiti.

Gangs that the international security force must combat are mainly concentrated in Port-au-Prince, but violence has also increased in the Artibonite region.

At least 50 more people were injured, according to the Haitian Ministry of Health.

“This attack comes amid an increase in violence in the region, exacerbating an already extremely precarious security situation,” the health ministry said in a statement. “This violence disrupts residents’ daily lives and limits their access to basic services, especially healthcare. Persistent insecurity is also preventing humanitarian interventions in certain places, making the situation increasingly critical.”

While the ministry attempted to use United Nations resources to respond by air, “direct intervention capabilities are severely limited due to virtually impossible access to the affected area,” the ministry said.

A spokesperson for the Haitian National Police did not respond to requests for comment.

The Multinational Security Support mission, a deployment of 410 officers from Kenya, Jamaica and Belize that arrived in late June, also said it would respond. The mission is based in Port-au-Prince and has no presence in the rural Artibonite region.

The force and the Haitian National Police have deployed officers “by road and air” to “calm the area and bring sanity,” said Jack Ombaka, a spokesman for the international force.

Haiti has been ravaged by extreme violence in the more than three years since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Gang killings and kidnappings increased earlier this year as several rival armed groups joined forces to attack police stations, prisons and hospitals. They managed to force the resignation of the prime minister, who was out of the country and unable to return after the airport was closed for two months due to gang violence.

The situation has returned to normal in some parts of Port-au-Prince, but more than 700,000 people who fled their homes after gang attacks on their communities are still unable to return. More than 100,000 people live in squalid camps, while others have dispersed to the homes of friends and family across the country.

The Artibonite area is known as the home of the Gran Grif gang. Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned its leader, Luckson Elan, as well as a local lawmaker who fueled his rise.

When an individual involved in gangs, human rights abuses or widespread corruption is sanctioned by the Treasury Department, U.S. banks are banned from doing business with them and can no longer travel to the United States.

In August, even the country’s former president, Michel Martelly, was sanctioned for allegedly participating in drug trafficking and “sponsoring” gangs.

Mr Elan was responsible for serious human rights violations, including kidnapping, murder, abuse and rape of women and children, as well as looting, destruction, extortion, hijacking and stealing crops and livestock, the Treasury Department said in a statement. declaration.

“The situation is especially devastating for his child victims who have suffered forced recruitment and sexual violence,” the statement said.

Artibonite is the rice-growing area of ​​central Haiti, located between the capital and the main city in the north, Cap-Haïtien. The country’s main road runs straight through it, making it a source of income for gangs who set up kidnapping ambush points along the way and take people off buses en masse. Gangs in the Artibonite have also increasingly invaded agricultural land there.

According to a report by Global Initiative, an organized crime research organization in Geneva, there are more than 20 criminal groups active in the area. From January 2022 to October 2023, more than 1,690 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in the Artibonite. At one point, the region represented more than a quarter of Haiti’s victims of violence, the report said.

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