Haitian military strike back at gangs after village massacre

Haiti’s national police arrested gang members during operations and patrols over the weekend and into Monday, the UN-authorized security unit supporting police said Tuesday. Col. Kevron Henry, deputy force commander of the Kenya-led international security support mission authorized by the United Nations briefly described the activity. Gangsters who escaped arrest received potentially fatal injuries, and authorities confiscated a plethora of gang weapons and communication equipment during the joint operation, according to Henry’s statement.

The police response came less than two weeks after UN officials said Haiti’s Gran Grif gang stormed the western town of Pont-Sondé and murdered over 70 villagers. Media groups later counted more than 100 dead. Stability within Haiti crumbled earlier this year when gangs seized the capital city of Port-au-Prince in late February and early March. Human Rights Watch reported last week that gangs still control about 80 percent of the country’s capital.

Henry called on gangs to stop brutal assaults on peaceful civilians, naming the Kraze Baryè gang and infamous leader Vitel'Homme Innocent by name. Civilian safety is the military’s top priority and joint operations combatting gang activity would continue in Port-au-Prince and Pont-Sondé, Henry said. The international security support mission will not stop operations until all gang members surrender to the authorities for justice, he added. Henry also renewed calls for civilians to stand up and support the military as it fights the gangs.

Why would civilians not be supporting those combatting gangs? About 2.7 million people, including half a million children, live under the control of gangs, the United Nations Children’s Fund Executive Director Catherine Russell said in April. Authorities believed the Gran Grif’s massacre on Pont-Sondé was retaliation against civilians accused of not supporting the gang, according to a report by the Washington-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the Pont-Sondé massacre.