At least 16 people killed in two attacks in northern Honduras

Gunfire incidents in northern Honduras killed at least 16 people. One attack occurred on a remote palm farm in Rigores, Trujillo municipality, where armed suspects fired indiscriminately on rural laborers, including people gathered at a local church. A police spokesperson said up to 10 workers were shot dead, with the number expected to rise, and family members arrived to collect bodies before investigators secured the scene. Human rights experts linked recurring violence in the region to agrarian conflict, land dispossession, and armed actors seeking control of fertile territory. A separate incident in Cortes near the Guatemala border involved police officers traveling to conduct an anti-gang operation, entering a building, and being ambushed, resulting in six officers killed.

"On Thursday, gunfire was first reported on a remote palm farm in Rigores, part of the municipality of Trujillo in the country's north. A spokesperson for Honduras's National Police, Edgardo Barahona, said that as many as 10 workers were shot dead at the site, though the number is expected to rise. Barahona explained that some distraught family members had come to collect their loved ones' bodies before investigators could secure the crime scene."

"Local media indicated that armed suspects fired indiscriminately on labourers, including some who had gathered at a local church. Photos showed bodies, some wearing thick rubber boots for work, strewn on the ground outside. According to one report, three sisters were among the dead. While no motive has been identified in the attack, northern Honduras has been the site of ongoing agrarian conflict for years."

"Human rights experts warn that local farmers and workers have been forced off their land by armed actors seeking control of the fertile territory, resulting in sometimes deadly attacks. In the aftermath of the shooting, the head of Honduras's Joint Staff of the Armed Forces, Hector Benjamin Valerio Ardon, issued a statement that the armed forces would offer all necessary logistics and all its personnel to find those responsible."

"Separately on Thursday, a second deadly incident unfolded in another part of northern Honduras, the Cortes department, near the border with Guatemala. In that case, police officers had travelled from the capital Tegucigalpa to Omoa, in Cortes, to carry out an anti-gang operation. But authorities describe what happened next as an ambush. According to reports, the officers entered a building to search for suspects and were fired upon. Six officers were killed"

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