Thousands survived a brutal gang attack in Haiti that left 70 people dead. Now they face an uncertain future

PONT-SONDÉ, Haiti (AP) — Under the cover of night, dozens of gang members armed with knives and assault rifles crept toward the small town of Pont-Sondé in central Haiti as families slept.

The gang had come from nearby Savien in vehicles they abandoned midway through the journey, climbing into canoes for the final stretch for a gentle approach.

Gunfire and shouts woke the city. Those who were not shot were stabbed. Fires consumed houses.

“They tried to kill everyone,” said Jina Joseph, who survived.

The Gran Grif gang killed babies and young mothers, the elderly and entire families, angry that a self-defense group had tried to limit gang activity in Pont-Sondé and prevent it from making money from a makeshift toll it had recently imposed on a nearby away.

The gang escaped on foot through nearby rice fields after Thursday’s attack, leaving more than 70 bodies scattered across the city.

It was the largest massacre that Haiti’s once peaceful central region had seen in recent history. Thousands now face an uncertain future, stripped of their jobs, homes and families.

Jameson Fermilus, who had crouched in a hallway next to his home as smoke and gunfire filled the air, later joined more than 6,000 other survivors who walked for hours in search of safety.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” said another who joined them, 60-year-old Sonise Morino. “We have nowhere to go.”

HUNGRY, THIRSTY AND HOMELESS

Thousands walked west to the coastal city of Saint-Marc. Days after the massacre, a crowd of men, women and children gathered around a Good Samaritan who stood on top of his car, handing out food and drinks.

The newly homeless crowded into a church, a school and a public square shaded by trees. Those who were lucky enough to receive food sat down on a dusty curb and ate. At night, they curled up on concrete floors and tried to sleep.

“These deaths are unimaginable,” Mayor Myriam Fièvre said as she met the survivors.

According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, a majority of the 6,270 homeless people have found temporary shelter with relatives living nearby.

But more than 750 others have nowhere to go, just like the more than 700,000 people who have already become homeless in recent years due to gang violence in Haiti.

Inside the school that served as a temporary shelter, a mother leaned against a blackboard and slowly patted her sleeping baby’s back as she stared into the distance.

‘A MESSAGE SENT’

Massacres on the scale of Pont-Sondé were once unheard of in Haiti’s central region, despite a recent increase in gang violence. Such massacres have only been reported in the capital Port-au-Prince, 80% of which is under gang control.

But things changed when former lawmaker Prophane Victor began arming young men nearly a decade ago to secure his election and take control of the area. That led to the creation of the Gran Grif gang, which the UN says controls Savien, Pont-Sondé and other places in the Artibonite region.

Victor and Gran Grif leader Luckson Elan were sanctioned by the US last month. Elan was also sanctioned by the UN Security Council, which noted that Gran Grif is “the largest and most powerful” gang in Artibonite, which committed nine mass kidnappings, including those of 157 people, between October 2023 and January 2024.

During that time, Elan killed a woman because she refused to have sex with him, the UN said.

The gang, whose name means “Great Claw,” also has one of the highest levels of child recruitment in Haiti, according to the UN.

Gran Grif is one of at least 20 criminal groups operating in Artibonite, where much of Haiti’s rice and other crops are produced. According to the UN, more than 22,000 people have been forced to flee as armed men target farmers and steal crops and livestock. The UN calls the authorities’ response ‘inadequate and inconsistent’.

In an interview Monday, Romain Le Cour, a senior expert on Haiti for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said he was concerned about the impact last week’s massacre could have on other gangs, despite a new the UN-supported mission in Haiti.

“It is a message that is being sent: that they are more powerful than the others and that they are willing to use brutal force against the people to ensure that their territorial power and economic control remain intact,” he said.

Le Cour noted that the Haitian National Police and the mission led by the Kenyan police are struggling because they operate only in Port-au-Prince.

“It will be even more difficult to open multiple battle fronts,” he said. “It is currently a huge challenge for the government.”

Since the massacre, the Haitian government has sent armored vehicles, elite police officers and medical supplies to Pont-Sondé and Saint-Marc, and Prime Minister Garry Conille visited the only hospital, overwhelmed by injured patients.

On Monday morning, police were still trying to enter areas of Pont-Sondé, while members of the self-defense group who remained in the city refused to talk. The normally busy main street remained largely empty. Gunfire rang out in the distance.

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.