A gang murdered “at least seventy people”including women and children, on Thursday in Haiti and at least sixteen other people were seriously injured, the UN announced on Friday, October 4. “Members of the Gran Grif gang, armed with automatic rifles, shot at the population, killing at least seventy people, including about ten women and three children.”specifies the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in a press release, saying “horrified”.
The massacre was perpetrated in Pont-Sondé, a town in the Artibonite department located on the highway that connects Port-au-Prince with Cap-Haïtien. Two of the seriously injured are gang members hit during an exchange of gunfire with the Haitian police.
The gang members “At least forty-five homes and thirty-four vehicles would have been set on fire.”forcing residents to flee. The High Commission calls “an increase in international financial and logistical assistance to the Multinational Security Support Mission [MMAS] in Haiti ».
Wave of violence
The MMAS, composed mainly of Kenyan police officers, recently began a mission to support the Haitian police, who are having great difficulty opposing the heavily armed gangs that burned and bloodied the Haitian capital and its surroundings for many months.
“It is also essential that authorities conduct a swift and thorough investigation into this attack, bring those responsible to justice, and ensure reparations for the victims and their families.”still wants the High Commission.
In late September, the United States announced sanctions against the leader of the Gran Grif gang, Luckson Elan, for his involvement in serious human rights violations, as well as against former member of Parliament, Prophane Victor, for his role in the formation, supporting and arming gangs. At least 3,661 people have been killed in the country since January due to violence, the High Commissioner announced last week.
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 in other parts of the country, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). ) published on Wednesday. .
Around three-quarters of these internally displaced people are now housed in the country’s provinces, with the Greater South region alone hosting 45%, according to the UN agency.
