At least 70 people, including three infants, were killed, and thousands forced to flee, when members of the Gran Grif gang stormed the town of Pont-Sonde in Haiti’s Artibonite region, according to a U.N. report on Friday. Armed with automatic rifles, the gang terrorized residents, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
“We’re horrified by the attacks in Pont-Sonde,” said U.N. spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan in a statement, reacting to the Thursday assault that left another 16 people seriously injured. Among the injured were two gang members, who got caught in a firefight with Haitian police. The gang reportedly torched 45 houses and 34 vehicles, forcing around 3,000 residents to abandon their homes.
This tragic event is yet another sign of the deepening crisis in Haiti, where gangs have seized control of most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are spreading their influence to surrounding areas. Their violence is driving widespread hunger and homelessness, while countries in the region continue deporting migrants back into the turmoil.
Prime Minister Garry Conille condemned the attack, calling it “an odious crime against defenseless women, men, and children,” and emphasized that it’s an assault on the entire Haitian nation. On X (formerly Twitter), Conille announced that security forces were stepping up their efforts in the area, and nearby hospitals were preparing to treat the wounded. Meanwhile, footage from Haitian media showed security forces entering Pont-Sonde, with a burnt-out vehicle lying in the street and bullet casings scattered on the ground.
Gran Grif’s leader, Luckson Elan, who was recently sanctioned by the U.N., posted an audio message blaming both the state and the local residents for the violence. He accused locals of being passive while his men were targeted by police and vigilantes. Elan’s gang has been accused of a laundry list of horrific crimes, including murder, kidnapping, rape, and mass property destruction, and they’re also heavily involved in child recruitment, according to the U.N.
The gang’s arsenal is largely made up of weapons trafficked from the U.S., but Haiti’s justice system has been in shambles for years. The U.N. noted that there has been zero progress in investigating mass killings since 2021, with several high-profile massacres going unsolved since 2017. In some cases, police have even been accused of being involved, such as Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier, a former cop and now gang leader, who the U.N. says orchestrated the 2018 massacre of 71 civilians in La Saline, Port-au-Prince’s port-side neighborhood.
Speaking of the port, it’s been shut down since late September due to gang activity, which is worsening Haiti’s already critical food shortage.
Urgent Calls for Help
Pont-Sonde is a major rice-growing region, located in Haiti’s Artibonite area, a crucial part of the country’s food supply chain. Violence there only makes the hunger crisis worse. Half of the population is already facing severe food insecurity, and famine-level hunger is becoming a reality for thousands in the capital.
Cherizier, who has become the mouthpiece for a coalition of gangs, claimed in a video that the attack on Pont-Sonde was part of a larger plan to cut off the region’s food supply to the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, the conflict has displaced over 700,000 people within Haiti, with numbers nearly doubling in the past six months, despite the partial deployment of a U.N.-backed mission aimed at supporting the country’s overwhelmed police force.
Raouf Mazou, a top official with the U.N.’s refugee agency, spoke out on Friday, warning that the situation is getting worse. He highlighted shortages in food, medical supplies, and the blocked humanitarian aid shipments. “We can’t just look the other way,” Mazou said.
Although several countries have pledged financial aid and military support, Haiti has received just a fraction of what was promised. The U.N.’s mission, originally greenlit more than a year ago, has seen only around 400 troops arrive so far, with most coming from Kenya.
U.N. officials, including spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan, are calling for more international assistance, both financial and logistical, to stabilize the situation and investigate the crimes committed. This call was echoed by a representative for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Prime Minister Conille has repeatedly urged countries to fulfill their pledges, stressing the urgent need for help to prevent further deterioration.
According to U.N. estimates, over 3,600 people have been killed in Haiti’s gang violence since the beginning of 2023 alone. Haiti’s former government made an appeal for international security support back in 2022, but progress has been painfully slow.
Meanwhile, nations like the U.S. and the U.K., despite holding territories in the Caribbean, have continued deporting migrants back to Haiti, ignoring pleas from the U.N. to halt the flights.
Frustrated with the lack of progress from the international mission, the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbor, announced this week it would ramp up deportations of undocumented migrants to around 10,000 per week.
