Gonaïves

Gonaïves is a city in northern Haiti, the capital of Artibonite department. It has a population of about 400,000 people.

It is sometimes known as Haiti's "independence city" because it was there that Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti's independence on January 1, 1804.

Two dozen people were killed in Gonaïves in 1994 in an army massacre of supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In recent years, Gonaïves has been the scene of substantial rioting and violence primarily motivated by opposition to Aristide, and on February 5, 2004, a group calling itself the "Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front" rose in rebellion and seized control of the city.