The gang members, armed with automatic weapons, stormed into the small town of Pont-Sondé in central Haiti at around 3 a.m. on Thursday.
Then they started setting houses on fire.“As people rushed out of their houses, they were shot,” said Ravina Shamdasani, chief spokeswoman for the United Nations Human Rights Office.
When the violence ended, at least 70 people — including 10 women and three infants — were dead, while hundreds of others ran for their lives, the U.N. office said in a statement.
These “gangs” control most of Haiti, including 4/5ths of its capital.
It’s a strange word choice that the media has coalesced around. Rebel groups or armed forces would imply that they are coordinated and ideological. Cartels would imply that they are selling something. Militias is probably the best.
I think they were already called gangs before they grew to the point of controlling major territory and the media kept the name.
Controlling territory doesn’t make them not a gang. There are rival gangs in Haiti too.
Fair enough.The term just fails to reflect the scale of the crisis for a lot of English speakers. They’ve so far overwhelmed the Kenyan/UN forces.