A gang leader who controls a major port in Haiti's capital is accused of killing elderly people and Vodou religious leaders in his community to avenge the death of his son, according to the government and human rights groups. it is estimated that more than 100 were killed.
Reports of the death toll in Port-au-Prince can vary wildly in a country where such killings often take place in largely impenetrable, gang-controlled areas.
The Haitian government in a statement on Monday acknowledged the massacre, saying more than 180 were killed in the Cite Soleil area, and vowed to bring to justice those responsible for “this unspeakable carnage”. .
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the ongoing violence, which saw “at least 184 people, including 127 elderly men and women, between December 6 and 8 in the Jeremie Wharf area in Cite Soleil,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. The UN did not respond to questions about how it obtained these figures.
Guterres called on the Haitian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice for this murder and all the abuses and violations of human rights, said Dujarric.
Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, told journalists earlier on Monday that at least 184 people had been killed by a powerful gang leader.
A gang leader's son reportedly died of an illness
The Co-operative for Peace and Development, a local rights group, said in a statement on Sunday that its investigation unit found that around 20 elderly people were killed in the massacre in the community controlled by gang leader Micanor Altes, also known as Monel Felix.
The false information was a worrying sign in a country grappling with widespread gang violence.
“The fact that we have so many doubts about what happened days after the murder is a sign that clearly shows the level of (gang) control over the population,” said Diego Da Rin, analyst with the International Crisis Group.
The alleged gang leader controls the coastal communities of Wharf Jeremie, La Saline and Fort Dimanche and was known for robbery, extortion and smuggling of goods and trucks, according to a UN report earlier this year.
“Micanor wasn't known for being as brutal as other gang leaders,” Da Rin said. “Not until now.”
The National Human Rights Defense Network said the killing occurred because the gang leader's child was very ill, prompting him to seek advice from a Vodou priest. After his son died, he accused elderly people in the community of “practicing witchcraft and harming the child”.
The Cooperative for Peace and Development said, according to information circulating in the community, that Micanor accused people in the area of causing his son's illness.
“He decided to severely punish old people and (Vodou) practitioners who, in his imagination, would be able to cast a bad spell on his son,” the group said.
He said gunmen rounded up prominent community leaders and took them to the gang leader's stronghold, where they were executed.
Lack of information on social media
Da Rin noted that killings in Haiti are usually recorded and posted on social media, although they can be difficult to verify. “In this case, there was not even a message on WhatsApp or a video on TikTok, which is very unusual,” he said.
The Co-operative for Peace and Development said Micanor has targeted Vodou practitioners in the past, killing a dozen elderly women and Vodou leaders “falsely accused of witchcraft” in recent years.
It is not unusual for Haitians to seek medical and other advice from Vodou priests known as “oungans.” The religion that mixes Catholicism with animist beliefs was at the heart of the revolution that made Haiti the first free Black republic in the world in 1804.
The massacre in Port-au-Prince comes two months after more than 70 people were killed in the center of the town of Pont-Sonde, where gangs are trying to control more land.
Such killings have overwhelmed Haiti's National Police and a UN-backed mission led by underfunded and undermanned Kenyan police.
“The crisis in Haiti has reached catastrophic levels with affiliated criminal groups intensifying large-scale, coordinated attacks on the population and key state infrastructure,” Human Rights Watch said on Monday as it called for a UN mission .
He noted that “many Haitians live in constant fear of being killed, raped, kidnapped, or forcefully employed even as they struggle daily for food, to find adequate water and health care to survive.”
More than 4,500 people have been reported killed in Haiti this year, according to the UN.
