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The killings are a personal vendetta of a gang boss who believes witchcraft caused his son’s death, rights groups say.
At least 184 people were killed over the weekend in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Haiti’s capital, the United Nations says, with human rights groups attributing the killings to a personal vendetta by a local gang leader.
Nearly 130 of those who were killed were more than 60 years old, the UN said on Monday, adding that gang members burned bodies and threw them into the sea.
The massacre was “orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang” in Cite Soleil, a sprawling slum by the sea in the capital, Port-au-Prince, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva.
“These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people,” he added.
Haiti’s government condemned the “massacre” as act of “unbearable cruelty.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on the Haitian authorities “to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure that perpetrators of these and all other human rights abuses and violations are brought to justice,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Two local human rights groups said on Sunday that Wharf Jeremie gang leader Jean Monel Felix, alias “King Micanor”, ordered the massacre after his child became sick.
Felix had reportedly sought advice from a Vodou priest who accused elderly people in the area of using witchcraft to harm the child, who died on Saturday afternoon, the National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH) said.
Vodou is a religion that was brought to Haiti by African slaves and blended with Christianity to become a mainstay of the country’s culture.
Gang members killed at least 60 people on Friday and 50 on Saturday using machetes and knives, according to the RNDDH.
“The gang’s soldiers were responsible for identifying victims in their homes to take them to the chief’s stronghold to be executed,” the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD), a Haitian civil rights organisation, reported.
Densely populated Cite Soleil is among the poorest and most violent areas of Haiti. Tight gang control, including the restriction of mobile phone use, has limited residents’ ability to share information about the latest killings.
The UN in October estimated that Felix’s gang numbered about 300 people and operated in a densely packed slum area known as a gang stronghold between the capital’s main port and the international airport.
Felix is allied to the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) gang coalition, led by a former policeman, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, that has taken over large parts of the capital and some rural areas in a coordinated offensive that began in February.
The latest massacre “demonstrates both the cruelty of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition and the deadly impact of impunity”, said William O’Neill, the UN’s human rights expert for Haiti.
The Haitian government, racked by political infighting, has struggled to contain the gangs’ growing power in and around the capital.
The Haitian National Police did not respond to a request for comment.
Haitian authorities had in 2022 requested international security support for local police, but the mission – approved by the UN in 2023 and based on voluntary contributions – has only partially deployed and is severely under-resourced.
Haitian leaders have since called for the mission to be converted into a UN peacekeeping force to ensure it is better supplied, but the plan stalled amid opposition from China and Russia in the Security Council.
An estimated 41,000 people were forced to flee their homes in the past two weeks alone, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Overall, there are more than 700,000 people displaced in Haiti due to the conflict, the IOM says.
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The killings are a personal vendetta of a gang boss who believes witchcraft caused his son’s death, rights groups say.
At least 184 people were killed over the weekend in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Haiti’s capital, the United Nations says, with human rights groups attributing the killings to a personal vendetta by a local gang leader.
Nearly 130 of those who were killed were more than 60 years old, the UN said on Monday, adding that gang members burned bodies and threw them into the sea.
The massacre was “orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang” in Cite Soleil, a sprawling slum by the sea in the capital, Port-au-Prince, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva.
“These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people,” he added.
Haiti’s government condemned the “massacre” as act of “unbearable cruelty.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on the Haitian authorities “to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure that perpetrators of these and all other human rights abuses and violations are brought to justice,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Two local human rights groups said on Sunday that Wharf Jeremie gang leader Jean Monel Felix, alias “King Micanor”, ordered the massacre after his child became sick.
Felix had reportedly sought advice from a Vodou priest who accused elderly people in the area of using witchcraft to harm the child, who died on Saturday afternoon, the National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH) said.
Vodou is a religion that was brought to Haiti by African slaves and blended with Christianity to become a mainstay of the country’s culture.
Gang members killed at least 60 people on Friday and 50 on Saturday using machetes and knives, according to the RNDDH.
“The gang’s soldiers were responsible for identifying victims in their homes to take them to the chief’s stronghold to be executed,” the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD), a Haitian civil rights organisation, reported.
Densely populated Cite Soleil is among the poorest and most violent areas of Haiti. Tight gang control, including the restriction of mobile phone use, has limited residents’ ability to share information about the latest killings.
The UN in October estimated that Felix’s gang numbered about 300 people and operated in a densely packed slum area known as a gang stronghold between the capital’s main port and the international airport.
Felix is allied to the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) gang coalition, led by a former policeman, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, that has taken over large parts of the capital and some rural areas in a coordinated offensive that began in February.
The latest massacre “demonstrates both the cruelty of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition and the deadly impact of impunity”, said William O’Neill, the UN’s human rights expert for Haiti.
The Haitian government, racked by political infighting, has struggled to contain the gangs’ growing power in and around the capital.
The Haitian National Police did not respond to a request for comment.
Haitian authorities had in 2022 requested international security support for local police, but the mission – approved by the UN in 2023 and based on voluntary contributions – has only partially deployed and is severely under-resourced.
Haitian leaders have since called for the mission to be converted into a UN peacekeeping force to ensure it is better supplied, but the plan stalled amid opposition from China and Russia in the Security Council.
An estimated 41,000 people were forced to flee their homes in the past two weeks alone, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Overall, there are more than 700,000 people displaced in Haiti due to the conflict, the IOM says.
Haiti gang kills 184 people over witchcraft accusation, UN says
The killings are a personal vendetta of a gang boss who believes witchcraft caused his son’s death, rights groups say.
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