Many communities in central Haiti have fallen under the control of a strong gang in recent weeks, which has resulted in at least 69 deaths and forced authorities to vacate multiple police stations, according to a statement from the UN on Friday.
In the Artibonite Valley, there has been an increase in violence that authorities attribute to a local gang known as “Baz Gran Grif,” which loosely translates to “Big Claw,” inflicting injuries on an additional 83 persons.
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The group has “established a climate of terror, characterized by looting, assassinations, kidnappings, destruction, extortion, hijacking of goods and trucks and acts of rape on young girls and women,” according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).
BINUH stated that it is alarmed by the gang’s rapid expansion into new locations and the fleeing of authorities in several localities.
In late January, the gang is suspected of murdering seven members of the Haitian National Police in a single day as part of ongoing attacks that led to one hospital that serves 700,000 people in the area suspending all operations a week earlier.
The UN said businesses and public transit had slowed down, and schools were still shuttered.
With gangs reportedly dominating 60% of the capital, gang activity had previously been primarily restricted to Port-au-Prince, they have since spread and grown more vicious and powerful elsewhere.
In order to escape the escalating violence, thousands of residents of the central towns of Liancourt, Verrettes, Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite, and Estère, according to UN authorities, have moved to nearby neighborhoods.
“This cycle of violence absolutely must be stopped,” according to BINUH.
“We urge the authorities to do everything to protect the inhabitants of the region as well as their property.”
Prime Minister Ariel Henry is again pleading for the sending of foreign soldiers, as he did when the violence in Haiti’s central region increased in October. Instead, the international community has chosen to apply sanctions and deliver supplies like military hardware.
