A man rides his bicycle past police station in Pont-Sonde, Haiti, October 7, 2024. Odelyn Joseph/AP/File Saint-Marc, Haiti AP —

Heavily armed gangs attacked Haiti’s central region over the weekend, killing men, women and children as the gangs set fire to homes and forced survivors to flee into the darkness.

Police made emergency calls for backup, asserting that 50% of the Artibonite region has fallen under gang control after the large-scale attacks targeting towns including Bercy and Pont-Sondé.

“The population cannot live, cannot work, cannot move,” one of Haiti’s police unions, SPNH-17, said Sunday on X. “Losing the country’s 2 largest departments — West and Artibonite — is the greatest security failure in modern Haitian history.”

The bulk of Haiti’s police force and the

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