An attack by the armed group Grand Grif in the city of Pont Sonde, in the commune of Saint Marc, department of Artibonite, in Haiti, left 70 people dead, including ten women and three children, the Rights Office reported this Friday (4). Human Resources of the United Nations.
“We are horrified by the attack, in which members of Grand Grif fired automatic rifles at the population,” said the office’s spokesperson, Thameen Al Kheetan, in a statement.
At least 16 of the injured are in serious condition, including two gang members who were shot by Haitian police, the source added.
In the attack, Gran Gref members set fire to at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles, forcing many residents to flee.
Kheetan reiterated the UN office’s request to increase financial and logistical assistance to the Multinational Security Support Mission, recently sent, after many delays, to try to reinforce security in a Haiti shaken by gang violence that controls the capital Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country.
The unprecedented attack against the civilian population began on Thursday, when members of the armed group entered the region and spread panic.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, members of Grand Grif invaded the region, destroying everything in their path with gunfire and setting cars, motorcycles and houses on fire. Children, babies and adults were killed, some of them while they slept.
As the hours passed, the Grand Grif caused more damage and more victims in Pont Sonde, which is now under the control of this armed group and joins many other territories in Haiti in the hands of powerful gangs.
Thousands of residents of Pont Sonde fled and took refuge in the main public square of Saint Marc, about 100 kilometers from the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
The attack came just days after sanctions announced by the United States and the United Nations against the Grand Grif leader, known as Luckson Elan, and despite the presence in the country of around 400 soldiers from the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission to contain violence in Haiti, which began to be sent in June.
“Once again, too often, we are faced with outright cowardice. A brutal attack, for no reason whatsoever, targeted innocent citizens in Pont Sonde,” wrote Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille on his X account.
Conille, who expressed his condolences to the victims’ relatives, said that “this heinous crime, committed against defenseless women, men and children (…), is an attack on the entire Haitian nation.”
According to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), at least 1,379 people were victims of armed gang violence in Haiti during the second quarter of 2024, bringing the total number of victims in the first half of the year to nearly 3. 9 thousand.
In 2023, violence killed and injured 8,000 people in Haiti, according to UN figures.
As for internally displaced people, data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicates that there are now more than 700,000, half of them children, which highlights the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in the country.
In its latest report, this United Nations agency reported that, in the last seven months alone, violence by armed groups has forced more than 110,000 people to leave their homes, especially in the commune of Gressier, west of Port-au-Prince, in addition to adding that, since June, the number of internally displaced people in Haiti has increased by 22%.
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