A Kenyan police officer is part of a United Nations-backed multinational force patrolling the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on December 5. Oderin Joseph/AP Hide Caption
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Oderin Joseph/AP
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The leader of a gang that controls the Haitian capital’s main port is accused of massacring elderly people and Voodoo religious leaders in the area to avenge the death of his son, the government says. Human rights groups estimate higher than expected. 100 people were killed.
Reports on the death toll in Port-au-Prince can vary widely in the country, where such killings often occur in gang-controlled and largely inaccessible areas.
Haiti’s government acknowledged the massacre in a statement on Monday, saying more than 100 people were killed in the Cité Soleil area and vowing to bring those responsible for “this unspeakable massacre” to justice.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told journalists on Monday that at least 184 people had been killed by powerful gang leaders. It’s unclear where his office obtained the number, and a spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The United Nations Secretary-General’s Office announced that 127 of the dead were elderly.
Haiti’s monitoring agency estimates that more than 100 people have been killed, sometimes citing local residents.
The Peace and Development Cooperative, a local rights group, said in a statement on Sunday that its monitoring unit had found that about 20 elderly people had been killed. However, the newspaper noted that unidentified residents of a community controlled by gang leader Micanor Artes, also known as Monel Felix and Wa Mikano, claimed there were more than 100 victims.
Another local human rights group, the National Human Rights Defense Network, said at least 110 people were killed between Friday and Saturday. The group and its executive director, Pierre Esperance, have not said where they obtained the information, and Esperance did not respond to requests for comment.
The vague information was a worrying sign in a country plagued by gang violence.
“The fact that we have so many questions about what happened in the days after the massacre is a sign of the[gang’s]control over the population,” said Diego da Rin, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. It clearly shows the level of
A United Nations report earlier this year said the suspected gang leaders controlled the coastal areas of Jeremie Pier, La Saline and Fort Dimanche and were known for robberies, extortion and hijacking of goods and trucks. That’s what it means.
“Mikanor was not known for being as brutal as other gang leaders,” Da Lin said. “That wasn’t the case until now.”
The gang leader could not be reached for comment and has not posted on social media. A spokesperson for the Haitian National Police did not respond to a request for comment.
The National Human Rights Defense Network said the massacre occurred because the gang leader’s child was seriously ill, prompting him to seek advice from a voodoo priest. After his son’s death, he accused older members of the community of “performing witchcraft and harming children.”
The Peace and Development Cooperative said that according to information circulating in the area, Mikanor blamed her neighbors for causing her son’s illness.
“He decided to brutally punish all elderly people and (voodoo) practitioners who could cast bad spells on his son in their imaginations,” the group said.
The newspaper said the gunmen rounded up prominent community leaders and took them to the gang leader’s headquarters, where they were executed. A motorcyclist who tried to rescue some of the victims also died.
The group also noted that people are prohibited from leaving their communities “to continue to identify (voodoo) practitioners and elderly people for the purpose of carrying out silent murders.”
Da Rin pointed out that murders in Haiti are typically recorded and posted on social media, but verification can be difficult. “In this case, there was no message on WhatsApp or even a video on TikTok. This is very unusual,” he said.
Mikanor has previously targeted voodoo practitioners, killing more than a dozen elderly women and voodoo leaders who were “unjustly accused of witchcraft” in recent years, according to the Peace and Development Cooperative.
It is not uncommon for Haitians to seek medical and other advice from voodoo priests known as “owngans.” The religion, which mixed Catholic and animist beliefs, was the root of the revolution that led Haiti to become the world’s first free black republic in 1804.
The Port-au-Prince massacre comes two months after more than 70 people were killed in the downtown area of Pont Sonde, where gangs are fighting to control more territory.
Such killings have left the U.N.-backed mission led by the Haitian National Police and Kenyan police underfunded and understaffed, and the United States and other countries are pressing ahead with the U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Human Rights Watch said Monday that “the crisis in Haiti has reached catastrophic levels, with organized criminal organizations intensifying large-scale and coordinated attacks against the population and key national infrastructure.” and requested a UN mission.
The report states, “Many Haitians are killed, raped, kidnapped, or forced They live in constant fear of being drafted into the military.”
More than 4,500 people have been reported killed in Haiti this year, according to the United Nations.
