Armed gang members wielding automatic rifles stormed the town of Pont-Sondé in Haiti’s agricultural heartland, killing at least 70 people and displacing more than 6,000, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s recent history.
The massacre, which occurred early Thursday in the Artibonite region, has sent shockwaves through a nation long accustomed to violence and instability.
The Gran Grif gang, led by Luckson Elan, claimed responsibility for the killings. Elan said the attack was in retaliation for residents’ failure to intervene as police and vigilante groups targeted his fighters. The assault left homes and vehicles torched, and entire families were reported to have been wiped out. Human rights organizations fear the death toll could rise as many victims remain unaccounted for.
More than 6,200 people fled their homes following the attack, according to the United Nations’ migration agency. Many are now seeking refuge with families in nearby towns such as Saint-Marc, while others have taken shelter in makeshift camps.
“This horrific crime against defenseless men, women, and children is an assault on the entire Haitian nation,” Prime Minister Garry Conille said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. He added that security forces were reinforcing the region in response to the attack.
Local authorities criticized the inadequate police response. Bertide Horace, a spokesperson for the Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission to Save the Artibonite Valley, told Reuters that police remained in their station during the attack, potentially fearing they would be outgunned by the gang. An armored vehicle stationed nearby also failed to intervene.
The attack marks a further escalation of violence in Haiti, where gangs now control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are spreading into rural regions, fueling widespread displacement and hunger. Despite promises of international support, aid has been slow to arrive, and neighboring countries have deported Haitian migrants back into the worsening conflict.
Rights organization RNDDH reported that rumors of an impending attack had circulated for months, as the gang sought revenge for residents’ cooperation with vigilantes who were preventing gang extortion along a nearby highway. “If intelligence services had been used effectively, this massacre could have been avoided,” the group said.
