At least 184 people were killed in Port-au-Prince over the weekend in violence described as “unbearable cruelty,” with many victims targeted for their connection to voodoo, according to the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD).
The killings in the Cite Soleil neighborhood were reportedly ordered by a gang leader who believed voodoo practitioners were responsible for his son’s illness. “He decided to cruelly punish all elderly people and voodoo practitioners who, in his imagination, would be capable of sending a bad spell on his son,” the CPD said.
Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime’s office condemned the massacre as “an act of barbarity, of unbearable cruelty” and “a direct attack on humanity.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also denounced the “horrific” violence. CPD reports indicate that victims were identified in their homes and taken to the gang leader’s stronghold to be executed. Bodies were reportedly mutilated and burned in the streets.
A resident confirmed to AFP that his 76-year-old father was among those killed. “The bandits set fire to his body,” he said, speaking anonymously out of fear for his family’s safety.
The massacre highlights the deepening control of gangs over Haiti, a country beset by political instability and violence.