Dozens of people have been killed and thousands forced to flee their homes after armed gangs ravaged Haiti’s major agricultural region soon before the expected arrival of an international force aimed at combating attacks like these.
Gang members stormed the Jean-Denis and Pont-Sondé areas of Haiti’s western Artibonite department on Sunday into Monday, according to rights groups, shooting civilians and burning homes.
Haitian law enforcement have confirmed that at least 16 people were killed on Sunday, with rights groups Defenders Plus and RNDDH estimating that the death toll rose as high as 70 by Monday as the attack continued overnight.
Dozens of houses were burned down and nearly 6,000 people were forced to flee, according to Defenders Plus.
Gang members split into groups, launching attacks across multiple localities, barricading roads and digging trenches across routes that serve as entry and exit points, Bertide Horace, a spokesperson from the Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission to Save the Artibonite Valley, told CNN.
“When they arrived in these localities, they began shooting in all directions. They killed several people and caused extensive damage,” Horace said, adding that her team recovered 30 bodies across multiple locations.
Horace told CNN there was no police presence initially, and that the gangs were “filming and operating with complete confidence” as people were left to fend for themselves. By noon on Monday, police arrived and gangs began to retreat, she said.
Reginald Fils-Aimé, a doctor based in central Haiti, said his team received at least 15 injured people at Hospital Saint Nicolas in the town of Saint Marc in the country’s west, the youngest of whom was just 13 years old. Seven of those patients underwent major surgery.
The influx of patients is the largest Fils-Aimé has seen from gang-related activity in weeks, and he fears more patients could be on the way.
The UN has expressed alarm at the attacks.
“This attack underscores the gravity of the security situation faced by the Haitian population. (The UN) urges Haitian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation,” Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said on Monday.
Haiti has been grappling with gang violence for years. A new multinational force known as the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), is expected to deploy to the country soon to combat the gangs that have been terrorizing the country.
“This latest massacre is yet another atrocity in a string of crimes that the Haitian authorities and the international community have failed to stop,” said Johanna Pelaez, regional researcher for the Caribbean at Amnesty International.
“While we await the deployment of the new international security operation, this incident highlights the urgent need for the Haitian government and the international community to collaborate in finding a lasting solution to the security situation.”
A UN report from last week indicates that at least 26 gangs operate in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, where life has all but come to a standstill as armed groups control key routes, choking off vital supplies from in-need areas. Some 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes and between March of last year and January of this year, more than 5,500 people have been killed.
Gangs have expanded their area of control well beyond the capital, into Haiti’s Artibonite and Central departments, the report finds.
The Artibonite department – known as the “breadbasket” of Haiti – is the country’s major agricultural area, crucial for a country where gang-controlled areas face shortages of critical food supplies.
“It is very difficult for the population to return to this area,” Horace told CNN of the sites of the latest attacks. “Because of the presence of the gangs who have destroyed everything in their path.”
“Not only have they destroyed families, but they have also destroyed their homes, their belongings, everything they owned,” she said.
