A powerful gang has taken over numerous communities in central Haiti in recent weeks, killing at least 69 people and forcing authorities to abandon several police stations, the United Nations said on Friday.
Another 83 people were injured amid a reported surge in violence in the Artibonite Valley, which authorities blame on a local gang called the “Baz Gran Grif,” which roughly translates to “The Great Claw.”
The gang has “established a climate of terror, characterized by looting, murder, kidnapping, destruction, extortion, theft of goods and trucks with violence, and acts of rape of girls and women,” reported the United Nations Integrated Office for Haiti (BINUH). ). BINUH said it was “alarmed by the speed with which the gang has spread its activities into new areas and by the fleeing of police in multiple communities.”
Murder of 7 agents
The gang is accused of killing seven Haitian National Police officers in a single day in late January, as part of ongoing attacks that forced a hospital that treats some 700,000 people in the region to suspend all services ago. one week. Schools also remain closed and business activity and public transport have declined, according to the UN.
Gang activity had been largely confined to Port-au-Prince, with gangs controlling approximately 60% of the capital, but they have become increasingly powerful and violent elsewhere in the country.
