Gang members have killed at least 110 mostly elderly people in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
The National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH) says a local gang leader targeted these victims after his son became sick and died. The gang leader spoke to a voodoo priest. He claimed that elderly locals practicing “witchcraft” were to blame for his son’s illness.
The United Nations reported that gang violence in Haiti has claimed about 5,000 lives this year. Over the weekend, UN human rights chief Volker Türk announced that violence connected to a powerful gang leader in the Cité Soleil neighborhood killed 184 people.
The escalating violence highlights the dire situation in Haiti. Authorities continue to struggle with the growing threat posed by gangs.
Witnesses report that gang members forcibly took numerous residents over the age of 60 from their homes in the Wharf Jérémie area. They were then killed by shooting or stabbing.
Some reports describe witnesses seeing mutilated bodies burned in the streets. RNDDH estimates that gangs killed around 60 people on Friday and another 50 on Saturday.
While RNDDH claims all victims were elderly, other groups say some younger people who tried to help them were also killed. The violence seems to have started because the gang leader believed that local voodoo practitioners caused his son’s illness.
The gang, led by Monel Felix, known as Mikano, controls a key area in the capital. With gangs now in control of about 85% of Port-au-Prince, the crisis worsens, forcing over 700,000 people, including many children, to leave their homes. Efforts by an international police mission from Kenya to restore peace have not yet succeeded.
-BBC
