UN 'horrified' after armed gunmen kill at least 70 in Haiti gang massacre

By Will Conroy

At least 70 people have been killed by armed gunmen in a gang massacre in Haiti, the United Nations has said.

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The gunmen belonging to the Gran Grif gang shot residents as they passed through Pont-Sonde with automatic rifles, according to the UN's Human Rights Office.

At least 16 people were also seriously injured in the attack in the early hours of Thursday, according to the UN.

"We are horrified by Thursday's gang attacks in the town of Pont-Sonde in Haiti's Artibonite region," a spokesperson said.

Gang members were said to have set fire to at least 45 homes and 34 vehicles, forcing residents to flee.

Bodies lay strewn on the streets of Pont-Sonde, in the Artibonite region, after many were shot in the head, a spokeswoman for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite, told Magik 9 radio station.

In total, it was said that ten women and three children were among the dead, including a young mother, her newborn baby, and a midwife.

Video of the attack showed hundreds running for their lives.

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The Haitian government deployed an elite police unit based in Port-au-Prince to Pont-Sonde following the attack and sent medical supplies to the area's lone hospital, overwhelmed by the dozens of people injured.

"This heinous crime, perpetrated against defenceless women, men, and children, is not only an attack on these victims, but on the entire Haitian nation," Prime Minister Garry Conille said in a statement Friday.

Gang violence in Haiti is rampant and has brought parts of the country to a stand still.

The motive for one of the biggest massacres in the country's central region in recent years remains unclear.

These kinds of attacks have taken place in the capital, which is 80% controlled by gangs, and are typically linked to turf wars.

While rival gang members typically target areas controlled by one another, Pont-Sonde is considered a part of Gran Grif's own territory.