On 3 October 2024, the town of

Pont-Sondé Pont-Sondé (, ) is a town in the communal section of Bocozelle in the Saint-Marc commune, in the Artibonite department of Haiti. Location Located within the Saint-Marc Arrondissement, Pont-Sondé is located at an important crossroads on the ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

, was the site of a

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

perpetrated by the Gran Grif gang, leaving at least 115 people dead and at least 50 injured. Thousands more fled the town after the attack, which is part of the ongoing

gang war in Haiti Since 2020, Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince has been the site of an ongoing gang war. The government of Haiti and Haitian security forces have struggled to maintain their control of Port-au-Prince amid this conflict, with gangs reportedly control ...

Background

The Gran Grif gang operates in the department of Artibonite and is considered one of Haiti's cruelest gangs, with nine mass kidnappings attributed to the group between October 2023 and January 2024. The gang was formed after former legislator Prophane Victor began arming young men nearly a decade ago to secure his election and control the area. Both Victor and the gang's current leader Luckson Elan, have also been sanctioned by the United States in September 2024 and by the

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

. Rumors of an impending attack on the town had been circulating since August 2024, after the gang accused residents of collaborating with a self-defense group called "The Coalition" and hindering the operations of a makeshift toll established by the gang on a road and issued a warning on social media.

Attack

The incident occurred on the morning of 3 October. The attackers, who had come from Savien, entered the town using canoes and met little resistance from the police. At least 115 people died and at least 50 people were injured; 16 of them, including two gang members, were seriously injured. Many of the dead were shot by automatic rifles, while others were stabbed. They included 10 women and three infants. The attackers also burned 45 houses and 34 vehicles before fleeing by foot through a nearby farm. Many of the injured were taken to the Saint-Nicolas hospital in

Saint-Marc Saint-Marc (; ) is a List of communes of Haiti, commune in western Haiti in Artibonite (department), Artibonite departement. Its geographic coordinates are . At the 2015 Census the commune had 266,642 inhabitants. It is one of the biggest cities ...

, where the survivors also fled. Nearly 6,300 people were displaced.

Reactions

Prime Minister

Garry Conille Garry Conille (; born 26 February 1966) is a Haitian academic, development worker, politician, and author. He served as the acting prime minister of Haiti from 3 June to 11 November 2024. He previously served as the Prime Minister from 2011 to 20 ...

responded: "This heinous crime, perpetrated against defenseless women, men, and children, is not only an attack on these victims, but on the entire Haitian nation." The government ordered an elite police unit and medical supplies to Pont-Sondé. Conille later visited the injured in Saint-Marc's hospital. The

Transitional Presidential Council The Transitional Presidential Council (TPC; ; ) is a temporary body constituted by the Council of Ministers on 12 April 2024 and sworn in at the National Palace on 25 April to exercise the powers and duties of the president of Haiti either unt ...

held a minute of silence for the victims on 7 October. The police commissioner for the Artibonite Department was dismissed on 4 October. A government prosecutor called the attack a

. Luckson Elan blamed the government and Pont-Sondé's inhabitants for the attack, accusing them of passivity during attacks on Gran Grif members. Survivors have questioned why authorities did not do anything to stop the attack since the gang had warned in a video posted on social media that it planned to target Pont-Sondé.

United Nations Human Rights Office The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...

spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said his agency was horrified by the attack. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

also condemned the attack.

References

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