Haiti has been reeling from a worsening conflict for years, where armed gangs control most of the capital Port-au-Prince and other regions where they indulge in kidnappings, rapes, murders and more. The gang shot people and set fire to dozens of homes and vehicles on Thursday.

At least 70 people, including three infants, were killed in a gang attack in the central Haiti town of Pont Sondé, the United Nations Human Rights Office said in a statement on Friday.

A gang leader said the bloodshed was meant to cut the capital off from a rice-growing region of Haiti amid starvation conditions.