Gunmen from the Gran Grif gang killed at least 70 people, including three infants, as they drove through a Haitian town, gassing residents with automatic weapons, a spokesman for the UN human rights office said.

At least 3,000 people were displaced by this attack.

Another 16 people were seriously injured in the attack that took place in the early hours of Thursday morning. Among them are two members of the gang who exchanged fire with Haitian police officers. The gang allegedly torched 45 houses and 34 vehicles, forcing residents to flee.

In a recorded message posted on social networking sites, Gran Grif chief Luxon Elan blamed the state and the victims for the attacks, saying residents remained apathetic when his soldiers were killed by police or militia groups. Local media reported that thousands of residents of Pont-Sonde were heading for the seaside town of Saint-Marc.

Pont-Sonde is a major rice producer and is located in the “breadbasket” of Haiti, in the Artibonite region, on a road leading to the capital Port-au-Prince in the north.

Also read: Haiti | Gangs – security forces war on the streets

Artibonite has seen several violent incidents recently, exacerbating the food crisis in the country. Half the population of Haiti and thousands of people in Port-au-Prince are on the brink of starvation.

Gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Sergier, who acts as a spokesman for an alliance of armed gangs in the capital, said in a video that the attack was part of a plan to prevent Artibonite province from supplying food to Port-au-Prince.

The number of people internally displaced by the violence has surpassed 700,000, doubling in six months, despite the partial deployment of a UN-backed Multinational Security Assistance Mission (MMAS) mandated to help understaffed police restore order. 

The Haitian government has requested that the mission, which consists mainly of Kenyan police officers, be turned into an official UN peacekeeping mission.

The United Nations estimated at the end of September that 3,661 people had been killed since January, a figure equivalent to 13 murders a day. 

At the same time, the US sanctioned the leader of the “Gran Grif” for serious human rights violations, as well as a former member of parliament, Profan Victor, for his role in forming, supporting, and equipping the gangs.

Also read: UN | Security Council demands halt to flow of arms to gangs in Haiti