Dozens Killed in Multi-Day Gang Attack in Haiti

A bloody gang rampage continued into a third day in Haiti as armed groups attacked the town of Marchand Dessalines on Wednesday, according to police and rights groups. Dozens of people have been killed and thousands forced to flee their homes amid the chaos in Artibonite, Haiti’s major agricultural region.

The attack comes before the expected arrival of an international “gang suppression” force in April.

The attack began on Sunday, with gang members burning homes and shooting civilians in the Jean-Denis and Pont-Sondé areas, according to rights groups. Video verified by CNN showed people, including young children, trying to escape Jean-Denis. Some carried minimal belongings, others fled with nothing at all.

Gang members split into groups, launching attacks across multiple localities, barricading roads and digging trenches across routes that serve as entry and exit points, Bertide Horace, a spokesperson from the Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission to Save the Artibonite Valley, told CNN.

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Haitian law enforcement have confirmed that at least 16 people were killed on Sunday, with rights groups Defenders Plus and RNDDH estimating that the death toll had risen as high as 70 by Monday.

Dozens of houses have been burned down and nearly 6,000 people were forced to flee, according to Defenders Plus.

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A UN report from last week indicates that at least 26 gangs operate in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, where life has all but come to a standstill as armed groups control key routes, choking off vital supplies from in-need areas. Some 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes and between March of last year and January of this year, more than 5,500 people have been killed.

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