Gang attack in Haiti | More than 6,000 people have fled their homes

(Saint-Marc) Nearly 6,300 people have fled their homes following an attack in central Haiti by heavily armed gang members that killed at least 70 people, according to the United Nations agency for migrations.

Nearly 90% of displaced people are staying with relatives in host families, while 12% have found shelter in other sites, including a school, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a report released last week.

The Pont-Sondé attack occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning, and many displaced people left in the middle of the night.

Gang members “came in shooting and breaking into homes to steal and burn. I just had time to grab my kids and run in the dark,” Sonise Mirano, 60, who was camping with hundreds of people in a park in the nearby coastal town of St. Mark, said Sunday.

Bodies litter the streets of Pont-Sondé after the attack in the Artibonite region, most of them having been shot in the head, the spokesperson for the Commission for dialogue, reconciliation and awareness-raising for the preservation of the Artibonite, Bertide Harace, at the Magik 9 radio station.

Initial estimates put 20 people killed, but activists and government officials discovered more bodies when they accessed parts of the city. Among the victims were a young mother, her newborn and a midwife, Bertide Herace said.

The Prime Minister asks for help from the population

Prime Minister Garry Conille promised perpetrators would face the full force of the law during his comments in Saint-Marc on Friday.

“It is necessary to arrest them, bring them to justice and put them in prison. They must pay for what they did, and the victims must receive reparation,” he said.

The Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement that it was “horrified by Thursday’s gang attacks.” The European Union also condemned the violence in a statement released Friday, which it said marked “a new escalation in the extreme violence that these criminal groups are inflicting on the Haitian people.”

The Haitian government deployed an elite police unit from Port-au-Prince to Pont-Sondé after the attack and sent medical equipment to help the region’s isolated and overwhelmed hospital.

Police will remain in the area as long as necessary to ensure security, Conille said, adding that he did not know whether it would take a day or a month. He also appealed to the population, saying that “the police cannot do it alone”.

Gang violence in the Artibonite, which produces much of Haiti’s food, has increased in recent years. Thursday’s attack is one of the largest massacres carried out since the increase in violence began.

Similar massacres have taken place in the capital Port-au-Prince, where 80% of the territory is controlled by gangs, and they are usually linked to turf wars, with gang members targeting civilians in areas controlled by rivals.

Many neighborhoods are unsafe and people affected by the violence have not been able to return home, even if their homes have not been destroyed.

More than 700,000 people – more than half of whom are children – are now internally displaced, according to the IOM in an October 2 statement. This is an increase of 22% since June.

Port-au-Prince hosts a quarter of the country’s displaced people, who often reside in overcrowded sites with little or no access to basic services, the agency said.

Those forced to flee their homes are mostly being hosted by families, who have reported significant difficulties, including food shortages, overwhelmed health facilities and a lack of essential supplies in local markets, the agency adds.