A brutal attack by the Gran Grif gang in Haiti has left at least 70 people dead, including three infants, and forced around 3,000 people to flee their homes. The attackers stormed through the town of Pont-Sonde, firing automatic rifles indiscriminately, according to a report from the United Nations on Friday. The violence has once again highlighted the deepening crisis in the country as armed groups continue to expand their control.
Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N., expressed the organization’s horror at the attack. “We are horrified by Thursday’s gang attacks in the town of Pont-Sonde in Haiti’s Artibonite department,” Al-Kheetan said in a public statement. In addition to the death toll, at least 16 people were seriously wounded during the early Thursday assault, including two gang members who were injured in a firefight with Haitian police forces.
Reports from the area indicate that the gang set fire to at least 45 homes and 34 vehicles, sending residents scrambling to escape. The event marks a further escalation of the violence gripping the Caribbean nation, where gangs already control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have begun spreading their influence to rural regions. As the violence intensifies, hunger and displacement have also worsened, with many Haitians left homeless while neighboring countries continue to deport migrants back to Haiti.
Prime Minister Garry Conille voiced his condemnation of the attacks on X (formerly Twitter), calling them “an odious crime against defenseless women, men, and children.” He added that it was “an attack against the entire Haitian nation,” vowing that security forces would strengthen their efforts in the affected area. His office also confirmed that the public hospital in Saint-Marc was preparing to handle the influx of wounded victims.
Footage broadcast on Haitian online television showed local security forces moving into Pont-Sonde, where the aftermath of the assault included burnt-out vehicles and bullet casings littering the streets. Despite these efforts, the gang leader responsible for the attack, Luckson Elan, claimed in an audio message shared on social media that the victims themselves were to blame. Elan, who was recently sanctioned by the U.N., accused the residents of Pont-Sonde of passivity, stating, “It’s Pont-Sonde residents who are at fault. What happened in Pont-Sonde is the fault of the state.” The gang leader also blamed the police and vigilante groups for the deaths of his soldiers.
