About 6,270 people have fled their homes in the Haitian town of Pont-Sonde after members of the Gran Grif gang stormed the town on Thursday, killing at least 70 residents.
This is stated by the UN agency for migration on the night of Saturday, according to Reuters.
Most of the displaced have sought shelter with families in nearby Saint-Marc and other towns, while others are staying in temporary camps.
Port Sonde is located in the Artibonite region of western Haiti. A spokesperson for Haiti’s national police force told Reuters that the police director in Artibonite had been removed and replaced.
– At the moment there are reinforcements on site to keep the situation under control, the spokesperson continues.
The leader of the Gran Grif gang, Luckson Elan, has claimed responsibility for the massacre. He says that the massacre is in retaliation for the fact that civilians have been passive while the police and other groups have killed his soldiers.
The gang members fired automatic rifles at the residents and burned houses and cars.
– This hateful crime against defenseless women, men and children is not just an attack on the victims, but an attack on the entire Haitian nation, writes the country’s Prime Minister, Garry Conille, on the social media X.
Haiti is a country in the grip of gangs.
The problems really got worse in 2021, when the then president of the country, Jovenel Moïse, was liquidated during the gang war in the country.
The capital, Port-au-Prince, is particularly hard hit. Violent gangs control about 80 percent of the capital.
Hundreds of police officers from the African country of Kenya have been deployed in Port-au-Prince as part of a UN mission to bring stability to the country.
/ritzau/Reuters
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
