Haiti gang massacres around 180 people, targeting elderly

Around 180 people were killed over the weekend in Haiti’s Cite Soleil area, Haiti’s prime minister’s office said on Monday, after attacks that an NGO said were ordered by a gang leader who suspected his child had been made ill using witchcraft.

“A red line has been crossed,” the office said in a statement, adding it would “mobilize all forces to track down and annihilate” those responsible, including Wharf Jeremie gang leader Monel “Mikano” Felix, whom it accused of planning the attack.

It said the victims were mostly elderly.

The National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), an NGO in Haiti that monitors state institutions and promotes human rights education, said on Sunday at least 110 people — all aged over 60 — had been killed in Cite Soleil over the weekend.

It later said the death toll could be higher and cited witnesses as saying that “mutilated bodies were burned in the streets, including several young individuals who were killed attempting to save residents.”

RNDDH said Felix had ordered the violence after his child became sick, and after seeking advice from a voodoo priest who accused elderly people in the area of harming the child through witchcraft. The group said Felix’s child had died on Saturday afternoon.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the events outlined by RNDDH. Felix did not immediately comment on the accusations.

Cite Soleil, a densely populated slum by the port of the capital Port-au-Prince, 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 massacre.

The government, riven with political infighting, has struggled to contain gangs’ growing power in and around the capital.