Haiti premier says gang killed about 180 people in Port-au-Prince

About 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 “mobilise 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 Defence 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 burnt in the streets, including several young individuals who were killed attempting to save residents”.

The 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 unable to independently verify the events outlined by the NGO. Felix did not immediately comment on the accusations.

Cite Soleil, a densely populated informal settlement 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 cellphone use, has limited residents’ ability to share information about the massacre.

The government, racked by political infighting, has struggled to contain gangs’ growing power in and around the capital. The armed groups are accused of indiscriminate killings, gang rapes, ransom kidnappings and fuelling critical food shortages.

In October, the Gran Grif gang took responsibility for the killing of at least 115 people in Pont-Sonde, a town in Haiti’s breadbasket Artibonite region. They said it was retaliation for residents helping a self-defence group hinder their road toll operations.

A UN-backed security mission — requested by Haiti in 2022 and approved a year later — has so far just partially deployed and remains deeply underresourced.

Haitian leaders have called for the mission to be converted into a UN peacekeeping force to ensure it is better supplied, but the plan stalled amid opposition from China and Russia in the Security Council.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said the weekend’s death count was at least 184, including 127 elderly people.

“The secretary-general reiterates his pressing call to member states to provide the multinational security support mission the financial and logistical support required to successfully assist the Haitian National Police,” he said.

Dujarric also called for an acceleration of the political transition within Haiti.

Haiti’s transitional government has said it plans to hold long-awaited elections in 2025, provided there is sufficient security for a free and fair vote.

The security situation has, however, continued to deteriorate, and many countries have yet to deliver on pledges of support.

Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, also spoke out about Cite Soleil.

“These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people,” he said.

Reuters