The Haitian government has deployed specialist anti-gang police units, it said Friday, after an apparent massacre northwest of Port-au-Prince that the United Nations said left at least 70 dead.
The attack, carried out early Thursday in the town of Pont Sonde, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the capital, also saw scores of houses and vehicles torched after gang members opened fire.
“Members of the Gran Grif gang used automatic rifles to shoot at the population, killing at least 70 people, among them about 10 women and three infants,” UN Human Rights Office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement Friday.
That is the deadliest single attack to happen since Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission aimed at restoring peace in Haiti was deployed in June 2024.
The Haitian Prime Minister’s office said in a statement that “this latest act of violence, targeting innocent civilians, is unacceptable and demands an urgent, rigorous and coordinated response from the state.”
The embattled Haitian National Police would be “stepping up its efforts,” the statement said, adding “agents from the Temporary Anti-Gang Unit (UTAG) have been deployed as reinforcements to back up teams already on the ground.”
At least 16 people were seriously injured, the UN said, including two gang members shot by the police.
Gang members reportedly set fire to at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles, it added, forcing an unknown number of residents to flee.
– Kenyan-led policing mission –
Additional security forces, supported by the Kenyan-led international policing mission deployed to the country, were sent to Pont Sonde overnight Thursday into Friday, the prime minister’s office added.
The attack occurred at 3:00 am Thursday, it said.
Prime Minister Garry Conille added that the “heinous crime, perpetrated against defenceless women, men and children, is not only an attack on these victims but on the entire Haitian nation.”
Last week, the UN human rights office said more than 3,600 people had been killed already this year in “senseless” gang violence in the country.
The United Nations recently extended its greenlight for the Kenyan-led policing mission, which aims to help the government secure swaths of the capital and countryside under gang control.
Haiti has for years been beset by compounding political, humanitarian and gang crises, with armed groups rising up to push out then-prime minister Ariel Henry earlier this year in an effort that saw attacks on the international airport and police stations.
Many politicians are intertwined with armed groups.
Last week, the US Treasury announced sanctions against a member of parliament from the Artibonite Department, where Pont Sonde is located, for allegedly helping form the Gran Grif gang to aid in his 2016 election.
Unelected and unpopular — and unable to restore order — Henry resigned, and a transitional government with Conille as prime minister was put in place, backed by the international community.
That government is mandated to restore security and lead the country to its first polls since 2016.
(MSS) mission aimed at restoring peace in Haiti is facing setbacks due to a lack of adequate financial support for member states who made a pledge to the United Nations.
The UN-authorised mission that is led by Kenya faces a funding inadequacy as member states who committed to contribute $ 84 million (Sh10.8 billion) have so far contributed $67 million (Sh8.6 billion).
The said contributions from member states have been made by through the UN Trust Fund for the MSS.
The mission is expected to comprise up to 2,500 police personnel, deployed in phases, at an annual cost of approximately $600 million.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres last month hailed Kenya, Belize and Jamaica for deploying personnel to restore calm in the Caribbean nation.
“… funding for the mission, and for the Haitian National Police, remains totally inadequate. I urge all those who have made financial commitments to deliver on them urgently. We must keep working to mobilize sufficient resources for the mission, and for the humanitarian response in Haiti,” Guterres told the ministerial meeting.
NO END IN SIGHT
The Secretary-General noted progress in establishing transitional governance structures that saw the selection of Garry Conille as Prime Minister.
“But the Haitian people are still subjected to egregious human rights abuses by gangs. Young women and girls continue to suffer appalling levels of sexual violence and abuse,” Guterres further noted.
According to the UN, nearly half of the population are food insecure and lack access to clean drinking water, with children being victims of crossfire.
Children are also exploited and trafficked, forced to join gangs and are increasingly used to carry out attacks.
“The Haitian National Police face significant shortages of human, material and financial resources. They need sustained and generous international support to equip and empower them to tackle the escalating gang violence and to protect Haitians from violence,” the UN says.
The MSS was on October 2, 2023, approved by the Security Council to be a non-UN mission that would be funded by member states.
Nearly one year after the high-level declaration, the Council is on September 30 expected to vote on the renewal of the MSS mandate.
In his tour of Port-au-Prince on September, 21, President William Ruto to the Kenya-led MSS mission being converted to a full U.N. peacekeeping operation.
“On the suggestion to transit this into a fully U.N. Peacekeeping mission, we have absolutely no problem with it, if that is the direction the U.N. security council wants to take,” Ruto said.
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