The attackers struck under the cover of night, crossing the Artibonite River via an old bridge before rampaging through the once peaceful rural community with automatic weapons and knives. \u201cThey were like headless chickens, shooting at anyone they encountered,\u201d recounted Louisseul Fran\u00e7ois, a resident of Pont-Sond\u00e9 in Haiti, who survived the onslaught.<\/p>\n
Fran\u00e7ois heard the initial gunfire around 3 AM, jumped out of bed, and convened with members of a local vigilante group called \u201cthe coalition\u201d at the town\u2019s entrance. Despite their efforts to organize, they soon realized they were outgunned and fled into the nearby hills, where terrified locals were hiding. \u201cThe gangs shot at anything that moved \u2013 even dogs. They aimed to wipe out the whole area. It was a premeditated massacre,\u201d Fran\u00e7ois, 41, lamented, having lost six friends and family members during the early morning attack.<\/p>\n
Voice quivering with emotion, Fran\u00e7ois described the horrific scenes he saw upon returning to the area with police, who had pushed the intruders back. The assailants had invaded homes, murdering anyone they found. At one intersection, Fran\u00e7ois spotted four bodies near a house engulfed in flames. Further on, a school and a health clinic had been set ablaze. On one street, 19 corpses lay sprawled on the ground. \u201cMen, women, and a three-year-old child,\u201d the father of three stated. <\/p>\n
Those scenes, while terrifying, were just a glimpse of the devastation, with the complete death toll only becoming apparent nearly a week after the violence. At least 115 individuals are believed to have been shot or stabbed to death during the gang’s assault on Pont-Sond\u00e9, allegedly in retaliation for the town\u2019s defiance against their control. The victims included both infants and the elderly.<\/p>\n
One of the deceased was Fran\u00e7ois\u2019s cousin, whose body \u2013 the first he found \u2013 lay in a pool of blood. \u201cHis head had been shattered by bullets, and his chest was sliced open with a machete,\u201d Fran\u00e7ois shared, having attended three funerals in a single day. <\/p>\n
Experts have labeled the October 3rd rampage as one of the most horrific mass killings in Haiti’s history, surpassing the 2018 murder of over 70 civilians in La Saline, Port-au-Prince. \u201cUnfortunately, there are many massacres in Haitian history \u2026 But in terms of recent years, this is way up there \u2026 It was really unprecedented,\u201d stated William O\u2019Neill, the UN\u2019s top human rights expert in the Caribbean. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill remarked on the systematic nature of the gang\u2019s actions in Pont-Sond\u00e9, describing their extermination campaign as \u201cconcerted\u201d and \u201cintentional.\u201d More than merely eliminating lives, he believed the violence was a demonstration of power aimed at Haiti’s recently installed interim government and the UN-backed international security force attempting to restore order amidst the chaos. \u201cTheir message was clear \u2013 \u2018We control this. Don\u2019t mess with us,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Neill said.<\/p>\n
When Kenya’s led multinational policing mission first arrived in Haiti in June after a series of upheavals, the country\u2019s new prime minister, Garry Conille, called on gang leaders to drop their guns and acknowledge the state’s authority. Yet, there have been no indications of the gangs complying. Despite some gangs seeming to retreat temporarily, perhaps to assess the foreign presence, most of Haiti remains under gang control, with sporadic violence still occurring, including a deadly assault in Ganthier.<\/p>\n
During a visit to Port-au-Prince last month, security expert Romain Le Cour Grandmaison observed that the temporary reduction in violence had created a \u201cprecarious peace.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the massacre in Pont-Sond\u00e9 has cast doubt on any recent improvements, highlighting the powerful and politically connected gangs dominating not just the capital but also the vital agricultural region of the Artibonite Valley. \u201cWe live in constant fear,\u201d said Myriam Fi\u00e8vre, the mayor of Saint-Marc, where thousands of displaced Pont-Sond\u00e9 residents have sought refuge.<\/p>\n
The violence has been attributed to one of the most infamous local gangs, Gran Grif, which controls a crucial section of the Route Nationale 1 highway connecting the capital and Cap-Ha\u00eftien. A 2023 UN report identified the gang\u2019s main crimes as \u201cmurder, rape, robbery, destruction of property, truck hijacking, violence against civilians, and kidnapping.\u201d After announcing sanctions against Gran Grif\u2019s leader, Luckson Elan, the gang perpetrated one of the worst massacres in recent history, demonstrating a blatant display of power and impunity.<\/p>\n
Fi\u00e8vre expressed concern that Port-au-Prince residents may have become desensitized to violence, but the horrors now encroach upon Artibonite, a region not accustomed to such brutality. \u201cThe people just want to go about their daily lives \u2026 It\u2019s as if we no longer live in our own country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill urged the international community to provide greater support for the underfunded and outmatched multinational security mission in Haiti before the gangs regain control. Currently, the mission has secured roughly \u00a365 million out of the estimated \u00a3450 million needed for operations. He compared the mission’s state to a surgeon attempting cardiac surgery without basic medical support. <\/p>\n
Two weeks post-massacre, Fi\u00e8vre indicated that security was slowly returning to Pont-Sond\u00e9, thanks to the efforts of Haitian and Kenyan police. However, she lamented the likelihood of gangs attempting to seize control of Saint-Marc, one of Haiti’s largest towns. \u201cWe need help, and we need it fast,\u201d she said, \u201cWhen we sleep now, we feel our fate is in God\u2019s hands.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The attackers struck under the cover of night, crossing the Artibonite River via an old bridge before rampaging through the once peaceful rural community with automatic weapons and knives. \u201cThey were like headless chickens, shooting at anyone they encountered,\u201d recounted Louisseul Fran\u00e7ois, a resident of Pont-Sond\u00e9 in Haiti, who survived the onslaught. Fran\u00e7ois heard the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-restaurant-news-uk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}