This week's gang attack on a Haitian town killed more than 50 people, activist says

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The tally of victims killed in this week's brutal attack on a small town in central Haiti by heavily armed gang members has risen to more than 50, a human rights activist said Friday.

Bodies lay strewn on the streets of Port-Sondé following Thursday’s attack in the Artibonite region, many of them killed by a shot to the head, Bertide Harace, spokeswoman for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite, told Magik 9 radio station.

Initial estimates were that about 20 people were killed, but activists and government officials have been gradually accessing areas of the town and discovering more bodies. Among the victims is a young mother, her newborn baby and a midwife, Herace said.

The attack is blamed on the Gran Grif gang, which operates in the Artibonite region and is considered one of Haiti’s cruelest gangs.

The motive remains unclear for what was one of the biggest massacres in the central region in recent years. Attacks of that kind have taken place in the capital of Port-au-Prince, 80% of which is controlled by gangs, and they typically are linked to turf wars, with gang members targeting civilians in areas controlled by rivals. But Port-Sondé is considered part of Gran Grif's own territory.

The gang was created after former Haitian legislator Prophane Victor began arming young men in the area to secure his election and control over the Artibonite region nearly a decade ago, according to a U.N. report.

Both Victor and the leader of Gran Grif, Luckson Elan, were sanctioned by the U.S. last month.

The gang attacked Port-Sondé before dawn on Thursday and encountered little resistance, Herace said, though she said that contrary to some reports, police officers did try to repel the gang.

“The gang had total control of the area,” Herace said.

Haiti’s government has deployed an elite police unit based in the capital of Port-au-Prince to Port-Sondé following the attack and sent medical supplies to help the area’s lone hospital overwhelmed by dozens of people injured.

“This heinous crime, perpetrated against defenseless women, men, and children, is not only an attack on these victims, but on the entire Haitian nation,” Prime Minister Garry Conille said in a statement Friday.

Gang violence across Artibonite, which produces much of Haiti’s food, has increased in recent years.

In January 2023, the Gran Grif gang was accused of attacking a police station in Liancourt, located near Pont-Sondé, and killing at least six officers. Violence unleashed by the gang also forced the closure of a hospital in February 2023 that serves more than 700,000 people.