PORT-AU-PRINCE — More than 180 people were killed in a massacre over the weekend in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Haiti’s capital, the United Nations (UN) human rights chief said Monday.
A leading Haitian human rights group described the killings as the personal vendetta of a gang boss who had been told that witchcraft caused his son’s fatal illness.
The slaughter began Friday in the Wharf Jeremie section of Cité Soleil, a sprawling slum in Port-au-Prince, according to the National Human Rights Defence Network, a civil rights group based in the capital.
Older people who practiced Vodou appeared to have been targeted, according to the group. That assessment was backed by another rights organisation and a Cité Soleil resident.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, told reporters in Geneva that at least 184 people had been killed.
Nearly 130 of those who were killed were older than 60, according to the UN, adding that gang members burned bodies and flung them into the sea.
The brutality of the killings reflects a country enduring an "accelerating spiral into the abyss," said William O’Neill, the UN's human rights expert for Haiti.
A woman carries her belongings as she flees homes following the armed gangs violence over the weekend, many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm, at the Poste Marchand suburb, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday. (Photo: Reuters)
Haiti has been convulsed by violence since early this year, when rival gangs banded together in a coalition called Viv Ansanm ("Living Together") to attack government institutions, including police stations, prisons and hospitals.
The National Human Rights Defence Network said that one of the gang leaders, Monel Felix, ordered the killings in Wharf Jeremie after being told by a priest that Vodou was responsible for his son’s illness. The child died Saturday afternoon, according to the widely respected rights group.
The group said that Felix, who is also known as Micanor Altes, Alfred Mones and by the nickname King Micanor, and his gang affiliates used machetes and knives to commit the massacre.
A resident of Cité Soleil, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, said the killings began Friday night and targeted people who practice Vodou. In some homes, five or six people were killed, the resident said.
The Committee for Peace and Development, another Haitian civil organisation, said the dead included some younger people, including several motorcycle-taxi drivers who were gunned down while trying to save others.
"Mutilated bodies were burned in the streets," according to a statement by the National Human Rights Defence Network.
Pierre Espérance, the network's executive director, said the number of confirmed dead was likely to rise.
"The senseless loss of lives and the pain endured by families demand not only our deepest condolences but immediate action," he said. "We cannot continue to stand by as gangs terrorise the population like this."
Felix could not be reached for comment, and there was no evidence that he had made any kind of public statement about the killings.
Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said "every resource" of the state would be used to restore peace.
"This monstrous crime constitutes a direct attack on humanity and the republican order," he said in a statement. The "machinery of the state will be deployed in all its force and with the greatest speed to track down, capture and bring to justice the perpetrators and accomplices of this unspeakable carnage."
Wharf Jeremie is one of the most impenetrable gang strongholds in the capital, and police generally do not go there. The lack of a law enforcement presence delayed the reporting of the massacre, experts who were following the developments said.
Vodou, which originated in West Africa, is one of Haiti's official religions. Its practitioners believe that all living things have spirits, including animals and plants. Brought to Haiti by slaves, Vodou is largely misunderstood in Western popular culture and coexists with Christianity as one of several recognised faiths.
Members of the Haitian Armed Forces patrol the area, as people flee homes following the armed gangs violence over the weekend, many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm, at the Poste Marchand suburb, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday. (Photo: Reuters)
The National Human Rights Defence Network said it was not the first time that Felix had been accused of killing older people who practice Vodou. He is believed to have been responsible for the killings in 2021 of 12 elderly female practitioners, the rights group said.
About 5,000 people in Haiti have been killed this year and more than 700,000 displaced because of gang-related violence, according to the UN. In the spring, the gangs succeeded in forcing out a prime minister.
A separate gang massacre two months ago in a farming town about 60 miles (96.5 kilometres) north of Port-au-Prince left at least 115 people dead, human rights groups said.
The bloodshed has continued despite the presence of a police force backed by the UN, known as the Multinational Security Support Mission, which is composed largely of officers from Kenya.
Last month was a particularly deadly one in Haiti. Three US airliners were struck by gunfire while taking off or landing from Haiti’s main airport in Port-au-Prince.
The airport is still closed, and American Airlines decided it would not return to the country at least through next year, the Miami Herald reported.
The massacre underscored the need to bolster the Kenya mission and provide it with adequate resources, O'Neill said.
With violence in Haiti surging, the United States has asked the UN to take over the security mission and turn it into an official peacekeeping operation. The change would allow for a steady supply of funding, personnel and equipment. Russia and China, which have veto power at the UN Security Council, have objected to the proposal.
The security mission recently announced that it had expanded its operations, opening a new base that will enable international police officers to work in more locations. The mission said it was committed to safeguarding critical infrastructure, reopening key national roads and creating a secure environment for national elections.
"We wish to call on gang leaders to surrender their weapons and turn themselves in, as their time is running out," the mission said in a statement last week.
A spokesperson for the mission said Sunday that he was not aware of the killings in Wharf Jeremie. A spokesperson for the Haitian National Police said he had no further information.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
A leading Haitian human rights group described the killings as the personal vendetta of a gang boss who had been told that witchcraft caused his son’s fatal illness.
The slaughter began Friday in the Wharf Jeremie section of Cité Soleil, a sprawling slum in Port-au-Prince, according to the National Human Rights Defence Network, a civil rights group based in the capital.
Older people who practiced Vodou appeared to have been targeted, according to the group. That assessment was backed by another rights organisation and a Cité Soleil resident.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, told reporters in Geneva that at least 184 people had been killed.
Nearly 130 of those who were killed were older than 60, according to the UN, adding that gang members burned bodies and flung them into the sea.
The brutality of the killings reflects a country enduring an "accelerating spiral into the abyss," said William O’Neill, the UN's human rights expert for Haiti.
A woman carries her belongings as she flees homes following the armed gangs violence over the weekend, many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm, at the Poste Marchand suburb, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday. (Photo: Reuters)
Haiti has been convulsed by violence since early this year, when rival gangs banded together in a coalition called Viv Ansanm ("Living Together") to attack government institutions, including police stations, prisons and hospitals.
The National Human Rights Defence Network said that one of the gang leaders, Monel Felix, ordered the killings in Wharf Jeremie after being told by a priest that Vodou was responsible for his son’s illness. The child died Saturday afternoon, according to the widely respected rights group.
The group said that Felix, who is also known as Micanor Altes, Alfred Mones and by the nickname King Micanor, and his gang affiliates used machetes and knives to commit the massacre.
A resident of Cité Soleil, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, said the killings began Friday night and targeted people who practice Vodou. In some homes, five or six people were killed, the resident said.
The Committee for Peace and Development, another Haitian civil organisation, said the dead included some younger people, including several motorcycle-taxi drivers who were gunned down while trying to save others.
"Mutilated bodies were burned in the streets," according to a statement by the National Human Rights Defence Network.
Pierre Espérance, the network's executive director, said the number of confirmed dead was likely to rise.
"The senseless loss of lives and the pain endured by families demand not only our deepest condolences but immediate action," he said. "We cannot continue to stand by as gangs terrorise the population like this."
Felix could not be reached for comment, and there was no evidence that he had made any kind of public statement about the killings.
Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said "every resource" of the state would be used to restore peace.
"This monstrous crime constitutes a direct attack on humanity and the republican order," he said in a statement. The "machinery of the state will be deployed in all its force and with the greatest speed to track down, capture and bring to justice the perpetrators and accomplices of this unspeakable carnage."
Wharf Jeremie is one of the most impenetrable gang strongholds in the capital, and police generally do not go there. The lack of a law enforcement presence delayed the reporting of the massacre, experts who were following the developments said.
Vodou, which originated in West Africa, is one of Haiti's official religions. Its practitioners believe that all living things have spirits, including animals and plants. Brought to Haiti by slaves, Vodou is largely misunderstood in Western popular culture and coexists with Christianity as one of several recognised faiths.
Members of the Haitian Armed Forces patrol the area, as people flee homes following the armed gangs violence over the weekend, many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm, at the Poste Marchand suburb, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday. (Photo: Reuters)
The National Human Rights Defence Network said it was not the first time that Felix had been accused of killing older people who practice Vodou. He is believed to have been responsible for the killings in 2021 of 12 elderly female practitioners, the rights group said.
About 5,000 people in Haiti have been killed this year and more than 700,000 displaced because of gang-related violence, according to the UN. In the spring, the gangs succeeded in forcing out a prime minister.
A separate gang massacre two months ago in a farming town about 60 miles (96.5 kilometres) north of Port-au-Prince left at least 115 people dead, human rights groups said.
The bloodshed has continued despite the presence of a police force backed by the UN, known as the Multinational Security Support Mission, which is composed largely of officers from Kenya.
Last month was a particularly deadly one in Haiti. Three US airliners were struck by gunfire while taking off or landing from Haiti’s main airport in Port-au-Prince.
The airport is still closed, and American Airlines decided it would not return to the country at least through next year, the Miami Herald reported.
The massacre underscored the need to bolster the Kenya mission and provide it with adequate resources, O'Neill said.
With violence in Haiti surging, the United States has asked the UN to take over the security mission and turn it into an official peacekeeping operation. The change would allow for a steady supply of funding, personnel and equipment. Russia and China, which have veto power at the UN Security Council, have objected to the proposal.
The security mission recently announced that it had expanded its operations, opening a new base that will enable international police officers to work in more locations. The mission said it was committed to safeguarding critical infrastructure, reopening key national roads and creating a secure environment for national elections.
"We wish to call on gang leaders to surrender their weapons and turn themselves in, as their time is running out," the mission said in a statement last week.
A spokesperson for the mission said Sunday that he was not aware of the killings in Wharf Jeremie. A spokesperson for the Haitian National Police said he had no further information.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
