On 4th April, our Confreres in Haiti informed us about the situation at Port-au-Prince, the Capital of Haiti, which was getting out of control and more specifically about the attack by armed bandits breaking into the Petit Séminaire Collège Saint Martial (Spiritan Newsflash No. 66).
The latest gang attacks and massacre took place in the early hours of Thursday, 3rd October at Pont-Sondé, Haiti, a local town in the L’Artibonite, where the Spiritans have been serving since 1987. Under the cover of night, dozens of gang members crept toward the small town of Pont-Sondé in central Haiti armed with knives and assault rifles as families slept.
According to the Associated Press, the death toll in the brutal gang attack on the small town in central Haiti has risen to 115. The attack was one of the biggest massacres that Haiti has seen in recent history.
Myriam Fièvre, mayor of the nearby city of Saint-Marc, said recently that the toll would likely keep rising because authorities are still looking for bodies and haven’t been able to access certain areas of the town.
The victims included babies, young mothers and the elderly, with the gang approaching Pont-Sondé via canoes to catch residents by surprise, according to a local human rights group.
More than 6,200 survivors have fled Pont-Sondé and temporarily settled in the coastal city of Saint-Marc and surrounding areas. Our Confreres at local Spiritan community serving Pont-Sondé were able to escape and have taken refuge in the nearby Spiritan mission about 6 km away in Bocozelle.
According to a report from Agenzia Fides, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Max Leroy Mésidor, expressed his condemnation of the vicious attack and offered condolences to the local population on behalf of the Haitian Bishop’s Conference. “The people are exhausted. They are asking the State for help…The country is completely sick. But the situation in the west and in l’Artibonite, the two largest departments, is even worse,” affirms Mésidor, who wonders if there is a conspiracy to destroy these two territories in particular and the country in general. “For two years, the municipality of Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite has been abandoned. No police presence. The same goes for the town of Liancourt. These two areas where life was once vibrant are now overwhelmed by despair.”
The l’Artibonite department is considered the breadbasket of Haiti because of its rice production. The severe instability in the region has contributed to the food crisis, which is contributing to the security crisis in a country that seems unable to find peace. According to a group of NGOs working in Haiti, 5.4 million Haitians, half of the suffer from severe food insecurity, of whom 2 million – about 18% of the population – suffer from severe hunger.
Across Haiti, more than 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since 2023 to escape gang violence and widespread insecurity. In the first half of 2024 (January to June), the United Nations recorded a total of 3,638 murders, an increase of almost 74 percent compared to 2023.
We pray that the Haitian people’s long and fervent cry for peace won’t go ignored as we continue to stand in solidarity with and pray for our Confreres in Haiti.
