San Francisco Frontiers - Death toll rises to 109 after Haiti gang attack, official says

The massacre saw scores of houses and vehicles torched after gang members opened fire early last Tuesday in the town of Pont Sonde, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital Port-au-Prince.

Walter Montas, deputy delegate of the Saint-Marc district, announced the updated toll on Haitian radio -- marking a significant spike since the United Nations initially said 70 people died in the attack.

The killings come as an international policing mission, led by Kenyan forces, attempts to restore government control in Haiti, where armed gangs have seized swaths of the capital and countryside and earlier this year helped push out the country's leader.

Haiti's government has condemned the killings in Pont Sonde as "unspeakable brutality" and sent members of the Haitian security forces and the Kenyan-led force to protect the area.

Montas said that a "fragile calm" had returned since the arrival of security reinforcements.

Haiti's police force said Wednesday they were seeking to dismantle the Gran Grif gang, which was behind the attack and is led by Luckson Elan, who is under US sanctions for human rights violations.

The police said in a statement that the operations are "beginning to yield satisfactory results," without giving any additional details.

More than 3,600 people have been killed this year in "senseless" gang violence in Haiti, according to the UN human rights office.

The wave of violence and a humanitarian crisis have forced more than 700,000 people from their homes -- half of them children -- according to the UN migration agency.

S.Hall--SFF