Central Haitian town descends into fire and bloodshed from gang warfare

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Violence erupted in the central Haitian town of Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite early Sunday morning as a powerful gang warred with a vigilante group, regional officials confirmed to The Associated Press.

The rampage from the gang Gran Grif left bloodied bodies scattered across the streets of the neighborhood of Jean-Denis, videos show. Gangs set fire to houses and left civilians reeling.

It wasn't immediately clear how many people were slain by the gang. The massacre is just the latest bloodshed in a nation that has been left reeling by spiraling gang warfare for five years following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Around 2023, vigilante groups began to emerge in the Caribbean nation to strike back against gangs sucking the life from Haiti. The wave of brutal vigilante justice has made the conflict in Haiti even more complicated at the same time as international forces have sought to pacify the country.

Vigilante groups often close off neighborhoods, stone and chop off the limbs of suspected gangster, behead them and set them afire, sometimes while they are still alive.

Meanwhile, the Gran Grif gang has continues to sow terror in the Artibonite region of Haiti, where Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite is located. The Gran Grif gang was among a number of Haitian gangs to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration last year.

According to the U.N., it's the largest gang in the region, responsible for 80% of civilian deaths there. It has massacred and raped civilians, including a minor, forced thousands of people to flee their homes and dismembered people, the organization said.