UNITED NATIONS, United States, March 31, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - At least 70 people were killed in "brutal and coordinated" attacks on a town in central Haiti over the weekend, a UN official said Tuesday, giving the most reliable death toll to date.

"This blind violence is a further reminder of the urgent need for increased support for Haiti against the scourge of gangs and the networks that support them," Carlos Ruiz Massieu, head of the UN office in Haiti, wrote on X.

The attack late Saturday into Sunday happened in Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite, a town in central Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas.

Members of the Gran Grif gang burned houses and left multiple people dead, local rights activist Bertide Horace said, with more attacks also happening Monday.

Pierre Esperance, a representative of the National Human Rights Defense Network, told AFP that the attackers gunned down those fleeing the house fires "while others were executed at point-blank range."

The estimated death toll initially ranged from 16 to 80 people.

A clear figure was not immediately available because it was difficult to send a government official to count the bodies, said Venson Francois, a prosecutor from nearby Saint-Marc.

For years, Haiti has been in the throes of deadly gang violence, with frequent murders, rapes and kidnappings.

The UN rights office said last week that gang violence and security operations targeting the gangs led to more than 5,500 deaths between March 2025 and mid-January.

Of those, at least 1,424 people were killed in violence by gangs, while 790 were wounded, according to the UN report.

Operations against gangs led by security forces caused at least 3,497 deaths and 1,742 injuries.

Meanwhile, attacks against gangs by self-defense groups caused at least 598 people to be killed and 76 injured.