Gang members brandishing automatic rifles stormed through a town in Haiti’s main breadbasket region, killing at least 70 and forcing over 6,000 to flee, causing widespread shock even in a country grown accustomed to outbreaks of violence.
More people were severely injured in the attack in the early hours of Thursday at Pont-Sonde, in the agricultural region of Artibonite in western Haiti. Gran Grif gang leader Luckson Elan took responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in retaliation for civilians remaining passive while police and vigilante groups killed his soldiers.
The gang members set fire to dozens of homes and vehicles, local authorities said, in one of the deadliest attacks in recent years in the Caribbean nation that has seen many massacres and little justice for their victims.
“This odious crime against defenceless women, men and children is not only an attack against victims but against the entire Haitian nation,” Prime Minister Garry Conille said on X, adding that security forces were reinforcing the area.
A spokesperson for Haiti’s national police told Reuters on Friday evening that the director of police in charge of the Artibonite department had been replaced.
