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The Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front is a rebel group in Haiti, based in and around the northern city of Gonaïves. It was formerly a politicized gang known as the "Cannibal Army" that had once supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but later turned against him. It recently adopted its current name and took control of Gonaïves after seizing the city's police station on February 5, 2004. It is presently the only known organized group among the rebels fighting the Haitian government of President Aristide, and it has been led by Buteur Metayer since the murder (allegedly on Aristide's orders) of Buteur's brother, Amiot Metayer, in late 2003.
Following the capture of Gonaïves, the rebels quickly moved into several neighboring towns, expelling the police from them. Some of these, such as Saint-Marc, were retaken by the police and pro-Aristide militants within days, however. The rebels' advance northward toward the country's second-largest city, Cap-Haïtien, and eastward toward the border with the Dominican Republic threatened to cut the country in half and deprive the north of fuel and food.
On February 14, the rebels were reinforced by opponents of the government who had returned from exile in the Dominican Republic: 20 commandos, led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who headed army death squads in 1987 and a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), which killed and maimed hundreds of people in the early 1990s. By February 17, the rebel forces had captured the central town of Hinche, near the Dominican border. According to reports, this attack was led by Chamblain. The rebels also controlled most of the roads connecting the central Artibonite province with the north and south of the country.
The degree to which the rebels in the various towns are coordinated is not yet clear. Many of the rebels are former soldiers of the Haitian Army, which was disbanded by Aristide in 1995 following its military rule from 1991 to 1994.
The rebels have adopted tactics of attacking police stations in the towns they enter, killing known Aristide supporters and burning down their homes. The bodies of fallen policemen have been publicly mutilated.
The rebels have not put forward any positive political program beyond the overthrow of Aristide. The government of Haiti calls the rebels "terrorists" and alleges that the country's civilian opposition is allied with them.
