SAINT-MARC, Haiti (AP) — Nearly 6,300 people have fled their homes in the aftermath of an attack in central Haiti by heavily armed gang members that killed at least 70 people, according to the U.N.’s migration agency.
Nearly 90% of the displaced are staying with relatives in host families, while 12% have found refuge in other sites including a school, the International Organization for Migration said in a report last week.
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SAINT-MARC, Haiti (AP) — Nearly 6,300 people have fled their homes in the aftermath of an attack in central Haiti by heavily armed gang members that killed at least 70 people, according to the U.N.’s migration agency.
People displaced by armed gang attacks rest at the Antoinette Dessalines National School, a makeshift shelter, in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Doctors treat a man who was shot and wounded during armed gang attacks, at Saint Nicolas hospital in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
A person displaced by armed gang attacks rests at the Antoinette Dessalines National School, a makeshift shelter, in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
People displaced by armed attacks receive food from a nongovernmental organization in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
People displaced by armed attacks receive food from a nongovernmental organization in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
People displaced by armed attacks receive food from a nongovernmental organization in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
The attack in Pont-Sondé happened in the early hours of Thursday morning, and many left in the middle of the night.
Gang members “came in shooting and breaking into the houses to steal and burn. I just had time to grab my children and run in the dark,” said 60-year-old Sonise Mirano on Sunday, who was camping with hundreds of people in a park in the nearby coastal city of Saint-Marc.
Bodies lay strewn on the streets of Pont-Sondé following the attack in the Artibonite region, many of them killed by a shot to the head, Bertide Harace, spokeswoman for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite, told Magik 9 radio station on Friday.
Initial estimates put the number of those killed at 20 people, but activists and government officials discovered more bodies as they accessed areas of the town. Among the victims was a young mother, her newborn baby and a midwife, Herace said.
Prime Minister Garry Conille vowed that the perpetrators would face the full force of the law in comments in Saint-Marc on Friday.
“It is necessary to arrest them, bring them to justice, and put them in prison. They need to pay for what they have done, and the victims need to receive restitution,” he said.
The U.N. Human Rights Office of the Commissioner said in a statement that it was “horrified by Thursday’s gang attacks.”
The European Union also condemned the violence in a statement on Friday, which it said marked “yet another escalation in the extreme violence these criminal groups are inflicting on the Haitian people.”
Haiti’s government deployed an elite police unit based in the capital of Port-au-Prince to Pont-Sondé following the attack and sent medical supplies to help the area’s lone, and overwhelmed, hospital.
Police will remain in the area for as long as it takes to guarantee safety, Conille said, adding that he didn’t know whether it would take a day or a month. He also appealed to the population, saying “the police cannot do it alone.”
Gang violence across Artibonite, which produces much of Haiti’s food, has increased in recent years. Since that uptick, Thursday’s attack is one of the biggest massacres.
Similar ones have taken place in the capital of Port-au-Prince, 80% of which is controlled by gangs, and they typically are linked to turf wars, with gang members targeting civilians in areas controlled by rivals. Many neighborhoods are not safe, and people affected by the violence have not been able to return home, even if their houses have not been destroyed.
More than 700,000 people — more than half of whom are children — are now internally displaced across Haiti, according to the International Organization for Migration in an Oct. 2 statement. That was an increase of 22% since June.
Port-au-Prince hosts a quarter of the country’s displaced, often residing in overcrowded sites, with little to no access to basic services, the agency said.
Those forced to flee their homes are mostly being accommodated by families, who have reported significant difficulties, including food shortages, overwhelmed healthcare facilities, and a lack of essential supplies on local markets, according to the agency.
Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.
Tcharlit Charles, wounded by a bullet during armed gang attacks, sits on a bed at Saint Nicolas hospital in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
People displaced by armed gang attacks rest at the Antoinette Dessalines National School, a makeshift shelter, in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Doctors treat a man who was shot and wounded during armed gang attacks, at Saint Nicolas hospital in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
A person displaced by armed gang attacks rests at the Antoinette Dessalines National School, a makeshift shelter, in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
People displaced by armed attacks receive food from a nongovernmental organization in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
People displaced by armed attacks receive food from a nongovernmental organization in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
People displaced by armed attacks receive food from a nongovernmental organization in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. snapped a 65-race losing streak by winning in overtime at Talladega Superspeedway after a late crash collected more than half the field, including eight of the 12 championship contenders.
Stenhouse is not in the playoffs and his victory Sunday marked the second consecutive week a driver not competing for the Cup Series title has won.
The victory was the first for Stenhouse and his JTG Daugherty Racing team since he won the season-opening Daytona 500 to start 2023.
“It felt really good. This team has put a lot of hard work in, obviously we haven’t won since the 500 in ’23. It’s been an up-and-down season,” Stenhouse said. “It was a lot of hard work this season just trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew that this track is one of ours to come get.”
Stenhouse's first career victory came at Talladega in 2017 and his four career Cup Series victories have come at either the Alabama superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway.
Stenhouse won in a three-wide finish between Brad Keselowski and William Byron, who with his third-place finish became the only driver locked into the third round of the playoffs.
Four drivers will be eliminated from the playoffs next Sunday on the hybrid road course/oval at Charlotte. Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe are all below the cutline.
Cindric was the leader with five laps remaining in regulation when Logano, two rows back, gave Keselowski a hard shove directly into Cindric. It caused Cindric to spin and 27 of the 40 cars in the field suffered some sort of damage in the melee.
Even Stenhouse had a chunk of sheet metal missing from the driver side door area when he drove his car into victory lane.
The race was red-flagged for nearly nine minutes of cleanup, and 22 cars remained on the lead lap for the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish. Many of those 22 cars were damaged.
Keselowski finished second in a Ford for RFK Racing and was followed by Byron in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Byron is the points leader headed into Charlotte and his cushion is large enough to earn him an automatic spot into the round of eight.
Kyle Larson of Hendrick was fourth and followed by Erik Jones of Legacy Motor Club in a Toyota. Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing was sixth in a Toyota and followed by Justin Haley of Spire Motorsports. Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing finished eighth, Bubba Wallace was ninth with 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan in attendance, and Denny Hamlin, the other co-owner of the team, rounded out the top 10.
Only four drivers still active in the playoffs finished inside the top 10.
Ryan Blaney, who used his win at Talladega a year ago to spark his run to his first Cup Series title, was involved in a crash racing for points on the final lap of the second stage.
Blaney was pushed too hard from behind by fellow playoff driver Alex Bowman and the shove forced Blaney’s Ford to take a sharp left and then bounce up the track into the wall and Ross Chastain.
Blaney tried to keep his battered car out on track but the engine eventually failed, ending his race. He was second in the playoff standings entering the race and feared his career-high seventh DNF of the season would drop him to the verge of elimination.
“I don’t know if (Bowman) ever lifted and just drilled me from like three car lengths back. The worst possible spot you could do it, so it’s pretty dumb on his part and it figures that he gets away scot-free per usual,” Blaney said.
And as for his chances to advance in the playoffs?
“We’ll just see where we are at the end of the race on points and go from there.”
Because so many drivers wrecked late, Blaney only dropped to sixth in the playoff standings.
Daniel Suarez was already trying to work his way above the elimination zone when his race was derailed as it started.
NASCAR penalized Trackhouse Racing for making a modification to the No. 99 after inspection so Suarez had to serve a pass-thru penalty at the start of the race that dropped him off the lead lap. When the pack came upon him to put him a second lap down on lap 11, Suarez tried to preserve position and ended up running into another car.
It caused him to spin into the grass and the Chevrolet had to pit for repairs. He tried the entire race to get back on the lead lap, couldn't make it, and then was one of the drivers in the late crash.
He finished 26th, somehow, and gained one spot in the standings to 10th. Suarez is only 20 points below the elimination cutline.
The playoff field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight when four are eliminated next Sunday at The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. AJ Allmendinger won the race a year ago.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s car shows damage from a wreck in the last few laps of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. celebrates in Victory Lane after a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Crew members for driver Austin Cindric change tires during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Driver Chris Buescher (17) leads a pack of cars to the end of Stage One during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Drivers race down the front stretch three wide during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Driver Michael McDowell (34) leads the pack to the start of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Drivers race down the front stretch four wide during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. talks with his wife and son on the phone as he celebrates in Victory Lane after a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. celebrates in Victory Lane after a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. celebrates in Victory Lane after a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
