The Haitian government strongly condemned on Friday the “unspeakable brutality” of the attack carried out by a gang the day before in a small town which left at least 70 dead, including women and children, according to the UN.
Members of an armed gang attacked Pont Sondé, a town located about 100 km northwest of the capital Port-au-Prince, on Thursday, shooting at residents and burning dozens of houses and vehicles.
“Members of the “Gran Grif” gang, armed with automatic rifles, fired on the population, killing at least 70 people, including around 10 women and three infants,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday. the man in a statement, saying he was “horrified”.
According to the UN, members of the gang “are said to have set fire to at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles”, forcing residents to flee.
This “attack of unspeakable brutality” was carried out “from 3 a.m.” in the morning and targeted “innocent civilians,” said the Haitian government in a press release on X.
He announced that he had sent reinforcements there, including units specialized in the fight against gangs and supported by the multinational police force, led by Kenya.
“Other specialized units are preparing to be deployed from Port-au-Prince,” the press release specifies.
“Most absolute cowardice”
“Today, once again, once too many, we are facing the most absolute cowardice,” condemned Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, castigating “a heinous crime” perpetrated “against the entire Haitian nation.” .
A small, poor Caribbean country, Haiti has been ravaged for years by gang violence, coupled with a serious humanitarian, economic and political crisis.
At least 3,661 people have been killed since January in the country due to violence, the UN High Commission said last week.
The leader of the “Gran Grif” (Big Claw) gang, Luckson Elan, has been targeted by American sanctions since September for his involvement in serious human rights violations.
According to Bertide Horace, spokesperson for a local associative structure, Mr. Elan had threatened to attack the residents of Pont Sondé because of a conflict around the road linking the capital Port-au-Prince to Cap- Haitian.
This killing follows “the refusal of certain Pont Sondé drivers to pay the gang money demanded at a toll post that it installed on the national road,” she assured during an interview on the local radio Magik 9.
“The bandits invaded the locality and executed dozens of residents. Almost all of the victims were killed by a bullet to the head,” she said, accusing the “police officers stationed nearby” and “apparently understaffed” of having “offered no resistance to the thugs.”
The attack also left at least 16 seriously injured, according to the UN, including two gang members hit during an exchange of fire with Haitian police.
Wave of violence
This tragedy occurs at a time when the multinational police mission, supposed to support Haitian police officers in their fight against armed gangs, is struggling to produce concrete results, due to lack of sufficient resources.
The UN High Commission called for “an increase in international financial and logistical assistance” to this force, composed mainly of Kenyan police officers.
“It is also essential that the authorities conduct a rapid and thorough investigation into this attack, that they bring those responsible to justice, and that they guarantee reparations to the victims and their families,” further pleaded the High Commission. .
A wish that is likely to remain a dead letter, given the fragility of the country’s institutions.
The wave of violence and a catastrophic humanitarian situation have forced more than 700,000 people, half of them children, to flee their homes to find refuge elsewhere in the country, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) published Wednesday.
Around three-quarters of these internally displaced people are now housed in the country’s provinces, with the Great South region alone hosting 45%, according to the UN agency.