At least 184 people were killed over the weekend in a densely populated slum in Haiti, a suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince, the UN said, in reprisals ordered by “a powerful leader gang” against people who “did voodoo“, according to Haitian NGOs.
The gang leader allegedly believed that his son’s illness was due to “voodoo”, explained a representative of the non-governmental organization Committee for Peace and Development (Comité pour la Paix et le Développement, CPD).
The office of the Prime Minister of Haiti Alix Didier Phils–Um “condemns with utter indignation the heinous massacre committed on December 6 and 7, 2023 in Wharf Jeremy (inc. part of the Cite Soleil slum), by the gang leader Michon Alte, known by the nickname Hey Mikan, and his accomplices”.
“This act of barbarity claimed the lives of more than 100 women and men, mostly elderly defenseless people,” Primature, the prime minister’s office, said via X.
UN: We condemn the horrific massacre
Earlier, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Volker Turkreported that “at least 184 people were killed in violent attacks orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang” in a suburb of Port-au-Prince.
“These latest killings raise the death toll in Haiti this year to a staggering number of 5,000 people“, he added during a press conference in Geneva.
On his part, the Secretary General of the UN, Mr Antonio Guterrescondemned the “horrific” massacre, calling on the Haitian authorities to guarantee that those responsible will be “brought to justice,” according to a press release released by his New York spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Caribbean, has been mired in chronic political instability for decades. But this year it has faced a sharp escalation in gang violence that controls the 80% of its capital.
The Chronicle of Horror
According to CPD, the gang leader who ordered the massacre “decided to brutally punish all the old men who practice voodoo because, in his imagination, they were responsible for his son’s misfortune.”
This gang leader is also known as Monelle “Micano” Felix.
The members—the “soldiers”—of his gang were ordered to track down the victims and “bring them to the chieftain’s stronghold to be executed”, the NGO added in a statement.
His men thus targeted “all old persons” and those “practice the voodoo faith” in the Wharf Jeremy area since Friday night and began to “execute” the victims and to “burn their corpses”, CPD Officer Fritchnell Pierre explained to Magik 9 radio station.
He clarified that “mototaxi drivers who tried to escape with people who were targeted were also executed.” The casualty count is still provisional, he added, as the area is “inaccessible”.
This weekend, Haiti experienced one of the most atrocious massacres in its recent history. In Cité Soleil, gang members led by Monel Félix, alias Mikano, hacked to death 184 people, most of them elderly, accused of witchcraft. pic.twitter.com/HqfCd78Ker
— OSCAR MARIO BETETA (@MarioBeteta) December 9, 2024
“They set fire to my father’s body”
“My father, 76 years old, was murdered on Friday around 10:00 p.m. Thugs set his body on fire,” a resident told AFP by phone.
“The family cannot even organize a funeral as we have not been able to recover the body,” he added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he fears for the lives of some of his relatives who remain at the scene.
Gang violence, endemic in Haiti, has taken off since February, when several gangs decided to unite and launch a wave of coordinated attacks in the capital Port-au-Prince in an attempt to force the then de facto prime minister to resign. Ariel Henri.
An international armed force led by Kenya, with the blessings and support of the UN and the US, began to deploy in the summer in the country, but the wave of violence continues to worsen.
THE Sean Savettspokesman for the National Security Council of the US presidency, yesterday, Monday (09.12.24), urged the international community to “provide immediate security assistance” to the multinational force and the Haitian security forces.
Above 700,000 people, half of them children, have been displaced by the violence ravaging the country, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as of October. To them are added some 5,000 people who left their homes because of the attacks of the last few days, the IOM said yesterday.
Voodoo, with African origins, part of Haitian culture, arrived in the country with the African slaves. It was banned during the period of French colonial occupation until the country gained its independence in 1804. It was not officially recognized as a religion by the Haitian state until 2003.