The death toll in a gang attack on a small Haitian town rises to 115, a local official says

PONT-SONDÉ, Haiti (AP) — The death toll in a brutal gang attack last week on a small town in central Haiti has risen to 115, a local official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The attack on residents of Pont-Sondé on Oct. 3 was one of the biggest massacres that Haiti has seen in recent history.

Myriam Fièvre, mayor of the nearby city of Saint-Marc, said Wednesday that the toll had risen to 115 and would likely keep rising because authorities are still looking for bodies and haven’t been able to access certain areas of the town.

“We are working to make sure that the population is protected,” she said in a phone interview.

The U.N. had previously said that at least 70 people were killed last week when the Gran Grif gang invaded the town in the central Artibonite region.

The victims included babies, young mothers and the elderly, with the gang approaching Pont-Sondé via canoes to catch residents by surprise, according to a local human rights group.

Survivors have questioned why authorities did not do anything to stop the attack since the gang had warned in a video posted on social media that it planned to target Pont-Sondé.

A day after the attack, officials replaced the police commissioner who oversees the Artibonite region, which has seen a surge of gang violence in recent years, with at least 20 criminal groups operating in the area, according to the U.N.

More than 6,200 survivors have fled Pont-Sondé and temporarily settled in the coastal city of Saint-Marc and surrounding areas.

A majority of them are staying with relatives, but more than 750 others have nowhere to go and are sleeping on the floors of a church, a school and a public plaza in Saint-Marc, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.

As Saint-Marc struggles with the sudden influx of people, Fièvre warned that the Gran Grif gang is infiltrating nearby communities after attacking Pont-Sondé.

Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network has said the gang was angry that a local self-defense group was trying to limit gang activity in Pont-Sondé and prevent it from profiting off a makeshift road toll it had recently established nearby.

Gran Grif has about 100 members and has been accused of crimes including murder, rape, robberies and kidnappings. It was formed after former legislator Prophane Victor began arming young men nearly a decade ago to secure his election and control of the area, according to the U.N

Victor and the Gran Grif leader, Luckson Elan, were sanctioned by the U.S. last month. Elan also was sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council, which noted that Gran Grif “is the largest and most powerful” gang in Artibonite, committing nine mass kidnappings from October 2023 to January 2024, including that of 157 people.

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Sanon reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Evens Sanon And Pierre-richard Luxama, The Associated Press