Haitian gang massacre: over 180 deaths after voodoo allegations

Haitian gang massacre: over 180 deaths after voodoo allegations

The Haitian government has announced that the country's gangs have crossed a “red line” after more than 180 people were murdered over the past weekend. The leader of a gang is said to have held voodoo supporters responsible for his child's serious illness.

massacre in Cité Soleil

an explanation from the Prime Minister of Haiti accused the gait guide Micanor "Mikanò" Altès and his accomplices to have carried out the massacre on December 6th and 7th in the poor district of Cité Soleil, in the capital Port-Au-Prince.

of the background of the crime

According to the national network for the defense of human rights (RNDDH), Micanor ordered the killing of older inhabitants of the Wharf Jérémie area because he suspected that witchcraft had made his child sick.

"The massacre was triggered by the serious illness of his child. Micanor was looking for advice from a voodoo priest who accused older people in the area to practice witchcraft and to harm the child," reported the RNDDH. Voodoo is widely practiced in parts of Haitian society.

the horrendous acts

"On Friday, December 6th, Micanor killed older people at least sixty (60). On Saturday, December 7th, he and his group killed at least fifty (50) by using machetes and knives. Despite his actions, his sick child died.

According to sources from the region, the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) from Haiti said that the attack was the goal of all older people and voodoo supporters who could be able to impose a bad curse in Micanor's idea. The corpses of the victims were found in the streets.

The shocking numbers

at least 184 people died in the massacre, including an estimated 127 older men and women, as the United Nations announced.

"These latest murders increase the number of fatalities in Haiti this year to an incredible 5,000 people," said human rights director Volker Türk at a press conference on Monday.

The continued violence

Since the massacre, Wharf Jérémie has remained "under an informal siege", with older residents and voodoo supporters continue to target by the wider Haitian Gang Alliance VIV Ansamn.

reaction of the government

The transitional government Haitis has promised to find the perpetrators and to hold them into account. "A red line has been exceeded and the state will mobilize all its strength to pursue and destroy these criminals," says a statement by the office of the Prime Minister.

For a year, Gangs have been devastating Gangs under the Banner of VIV Ansamn Port-Au-Prince, state institutions including prisons, police stations and the international airport in the city and force hundreds of thousands of Haitian civilians to escape from their houses.

international commitments

The escalating gear-controlled violence has caused the international community to send a multinational police forces to the Caribbean in summer, but so-called MSS has so far failed to contain extreme violence in Port-Au-Prince.

On Monday, UN Secretary General António Guterres asked Member States to provide more support for the multinational mission and to request an investigation of the massacre.

At the weekend, the national police insisted that common missions ran smoothly with the MSS supported by the USA and rejected online rumors that the two forces "did not work in perfect harmony".

The reporting on this topic was supported by CNN correspondent Sharon Braithwaite.