On Oct. 4, one of the worst episodes of mass violence in years occurred in Haiti when the Gran Grif gang, which has a record of horrific violence, attacked the town of Pont-Sondé, a major rice producer in the agriculture-rich central-west Artibonite department, historically known as Haiti’s “breadbasket.” Armed with automatic weapons, gang members torched homes, shot men, women and children indiscriminately causing 6,000 people to flee to nearby St. Marc. Reuters commented Oct. 5 that the violence in Artibonite is worsening the country’s hunger crisis, in which 5.1 million of Haiti’s 11 million citizens already suffer from severe food insecurity and 1.2 million are experiencing famine conditions.
Over the past two years, gangs have overrun the Artibonite region which has been responsible for producing much of the food consumed in the country. The gang violence here is starving the nation. Port-au-Prince depended on receiving food produced by the Artibonite’s farms, but gangs’ assaults on farmers, destruction of animals, torching of farms and homes put an end to that. The only way to transport goods to the capital now is by traveling on roads controlled by gangs and paying extortion, which then raises the price of food once it reaches market.The New York Times reported Oct. 5 that at least 7,500 acres have been abandoned in the Artibonite region.
