After Haiti suffers fresh gang massacre, what's behind the escalating violence?

By David Alire Garcia

(Reuters) - A gruesome hours-long gang attack in Haiti a couple of days ago left dozens dead, torching homes and cars, while forcing thousands more to run for their lives, in the latest blow to a country that has suffered extreme violence for years.

The early morning attack on Thursday in the central Haitian town of Pont-Sonde was launched by members of the Gran Grif gang. They gunned down at least 70 people, including infants, as the Caribbean island nation struggles to quell longstanding lawlessness made worse by the 2021 assassination of Haiti's president, Jovenel Moise.

WHO IS THE GRAN GRIF GANG?

One of Haiti's lesser-known gangs, Gran Grif is led by Luckson Elan, who took responsibility for the Thursday morning massacre. In an audio message shared on social media, Elan claimed his footsoldiers were retaliating against locals who allegedly helped a vigilante group that was preventing the gang from extorting money on a nearby major highway.

Last week, Elan, 36, was sanctioned by the U.S. government along with ex-Haitian lawmaker Prophane Victor, who is accused of forming and arming local criminal gangs.

"Victor and Elan, through their influence over or leadership of the gangs in Haiti, have sought to perpetuate the horrific violence and instability," the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement last week.

Gran Grif is the largest gang in Haiti's Artibonite department, according to security analysts, in a region that is home to much of the nation's rice fields. The gang was formed after Victor began providing guns to young men in the town of Petite Riviere, and, among other abuses, is known for perpetrating gender-based violence, including the rape of women and children.

WHY DO GANGS HAVE OUTSIZED POWER IN HAITI?

Haitian gangs have grown in power as the government of the former French colony has weakened, stepping into the vacuum while expanding their control over key roadways and other infrastructure. They are involved in a range of criminal rackets, including extortion and trafficking of guns and drugs.

One of the country's highest-profile gangsters is 46-year-old Jimmy "Barbeque" Cherizier, a former police officer. The United Nations has accused him of taking part in multiple massacres, including the killing of dozens of people in 2018, when hundreds of homes in the capital's La Saline neighborhood were set on fire.

In 2020, Cherizier announced the creation of a gang alliance called G9 Family and Allies that brought together nine capital area gangs. Under his leadership, the alliance took control of Haiti's main fuel port earlier this year, paralyzing transportation and depriving large swathes of the population including hospitals of fuel supplies needed to power generators.

WHY HAS THE GOVERNMENT STRUGGLED TO CONTAIN THE GANGS?

Haiti's government has for decades struggled to provide basic services, especially security. The national police force is out-gunned and chronically understaffed, having lost thousands of its officers in recent years, many fired while others have fled the country.

Dire economic straits marked by high inflation and poor crops have made matters worse, pushing almost half of the population into acute hunger, with some parts of the country verging on famine, according to international organizations.

The deteriorating security situation has coincided with a prolonged failure to hold local elections.

Earlier this month, the country's interim presidential council created a provisional electoral body, a step toward reviving elections and the hope for a more stable government. The body's tentative plan is to hold elections by 2026, a full decade after they were last held.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE U.N.-BACKED SECURITY MISSION?

Last week, the U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed to authorize for another year an international security force that is intended to help the local police fight the gangs and provide law and order.

But the long-delayed security force has been slow to deploy and relies on voluntary contributions. So far, the mission has made little progress helping Haiti restore order with only about 400 mostly Kenyan police officers on the ground.

Alongside U.S. funding and Kenya's initial deployment, Benin, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Belize have also promised to send at least 2,900 troops, but those additions have barely begun to materialize.

Haiti's previous government first requested the force two years ago. Since then, the gangs have taken over much of the capital and expanded to surrounding areas, fueling a humanitarian crisis with mass displacements across the nation of around 11 million.

(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Sonali Paul)