Around 180 people were killed in the Cité Soleil area of Haiti, the Haitian Prime Minister’s office said on Monday (9). According to an NGO, the attacks were ordered by a gang leader who suspected that his son had become ill through witchcraft.
“A red line has been crossed,” the Haitian prime minister’s office said in a statement, adding that it would “mobilize all forces to locate and annihilate” those responsible, including Wharf Jeremie gang leader Monel “Mikano” Felix, whom he accused of planning the attack.
The office said the victims were mostly elderly.
The National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), an NGO in Haiti that monitors state institutions and promotes human rights education, said on Sunday (8) that at least 110 people — all over the age of 60 — had been killed in Cité Soleil over the weekend.
Later, the RNDDH stated that the death toll could be higher because witnesses said that “mutilated bodies were burned in the streets, including several young people who were killed trying to save residents.”
The RNDDH said Felix had ordered the violence after his son fell ill and after seeking advice from a voodoo priest who accused local elderly people of harming the child through witchcraft. The group stated that Felix’s son had died on Saturday afternoon (7).
Reuters was unable to independently verify the events described by the RNDDH. Felix did not comment on the RNDDH’s accusations at first.
Cité Soleil, a densely populated slum near the port of the capital Port-au-Prince, is among the poorest and most violent areas of Haiti.
Tight gang control, including restrictions on cell phone use, limited residents’ ability to share information about the massacre.
The government, beset by internal political disputes, has struggled to contain the growing power of armed gangs in and around the capital. The gangs are accused of indiscriminate killings, gang rapes, kidnappings for ransom and contributing to critical food shortages.
Gang violence has killed thousands of people across Haiti this year as armed groups have spread into some of the last parts of the capital not yet under their control.
A UN-backed security mission — requested by Haiti in 2022 and approved a year later — has so far been only partially implemented and remains under-resourced.
Haitian leaders have called for the mission to be converted into a UN peacekeeping force to ensure it is better supplied, but the plan has stalled amid opposition from China and Russia in the Security Council.
UN chief condemns violence in Haiti and calls for investigation
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday condemned gang violence and killings in Haiti, said spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
He also called for an investigation into the case. “The Secretary-General calls on the Haitian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure that the perpetrators of these and all other human rights abuses and violations are brought to justice.”
“The Secretary-General reiterates once again his urgent appeal to member states to provide the multinational security support mission with the necessary financial and logistical support to successfully assist the Haitian National Police in confronting gang violence,” he added .
This content was originally published in Massacre in Haiti kills around 180 people; UN condemns gang violence on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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