{"id":5765,"date":"2026-03-31T03:36:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/at-least-70-killed-30-wounded-in-haiti-gang-attack-rights-group-says\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:36:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:36:58","slug":"at-least-70-killed-30-wounded-in-haiti-gang-attack-rights-group-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/at-least-70-killed-30-wounded-in-haiti-gang-attack-rights-group-says\/","title":{"rendered":"At least 70 killed, 30 wounded in Haiti gang attack, rights group says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Death toll provided by the Defenseurs Plus rights group significantly exceeds \u2060official estimates of 16.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At least 70 people have been killed and 30 injured during an attack near Petite-Riviere in Haiti\u2019s breadbasket Artibonite region, a human rights group said, significantly higher than \u2060official estimates, which put the death toll at approximately 16.<\/p>\n

Residents and officials told local media that the attack began in the early hours of Sunday in rural communities around Jean-Denis, and continued into the early hours of Monday, with gang members storming the area and setting homes on \u2060fire.<\/p>\n

The Defenseurs Plus rights group said it estimated that 6,000 people had been displaced by the violence. The United Nations estimated that more than 2,000 people had left their homes in the days before, following raids by armed gangs nearby.<\/p>\n

Police initially reported 16 dead and 10 injured, while a preliminary report from civil protection authorities said 17 had died and 19 were wounded, mostly men.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the UN secretary-general told a news briefing that the organisation\u2019s office \u200cin Haiti, BINUH, was closely monitoring the events and that estimates ranged from 10 to 80 people killed. He called for a thorough investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lack of a security response and the abandonment of Artibonite to armed groups demonstrate a complete abdication of responsibility by the authorities,\u201d Defenseurs Plus said in a joint statement with the Collective to Save the Artibonite.<\/p>\n

An audio message that circulated on social media was attributed to Gran Grif leader Luckson Elan. In the message, Elan appears to say the attack was a retaliation for attacks on the group\u2019s base in Savien by a rival armed group.<\/p>\n

The Artibonite region, a key agricultural area, has seen some of Haiti\u2019s worst violence. \u2060Gang conflict has extended beyond the capital, Port-au-Prince, despite more aggressive policing and promises of more foreign support \u2060for Haiti\u2019s security forces.<\/p>\n

Haiti\u2019s National Police said it deployed three armoured vehicles, which were slowed by holes that gang members had dug in the road. Officials said the armed group was fleeing the area when police arrived, and several houses were already burned down.<\/p>\n

The injured were then taken to a local hospital, and the dead to two \u2060morgues, police said, adding that they have launched an operation to track down the gang members who fled.<\/p>\n

Defenseurs Plus estimated that 50 houses were burned down.<\/p>\n

Close to 20,000 people have been killed in Haiti since \u20602021, according to a recent UN report, with the death toll rising each year, as \u2060increasingly independent and powerful armed gangs have clashed with security forces and local vigilante groups.<\/p>\n

Gran Grif and Viv Ansanm, which groups together hundreds of gangs in the capital, have been designated as \u201cterrorist\u201d organisations by the United States. The groups have been accused of mass killings, gang rapes, arson, theft and trafficking guns, drugs and organs.<\/p>\n

This month, the US offered a reward \u200cof up to $3m for information on their financial activities.<\/p>\n

The weekend\u2019s attack marks the latest of a series of massacres in the area, largely attributed to Gran Grif. In October 2024, a Gran Grif attack on the nearby town of Pont-Sonde left 115 dead, as armed \u200cmen \u200cshot residents door to door.<\/p>\n

More than 1.4 million people \u2013 about 12 percent of the Caribbean\u2019s most populous nation \u2013 have been displaced by the conflict with armed gangs, worsening an economic crisis and access to food.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death toll provided by the Defenseurs Plus rights group significantly exceeds \u2060official estimates of 16. At least 70 people have been killed and 30 injured during an attack near Petite-Riviere in Haiti\u2019s breadbasket Artibonite region, a human rights group said, significantly higher than \u2060official estimates, which put the death toll at approximately 16. Residents and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}