▲ House set on fire by armed gangs in the Poste Marchands neighborhood, in Port-au-Prince.Photo Afp
AFP and Europa Press
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, December 10, 2024, p. 22
Port-au-Prince., At least 184 people died in Port-au-Prince this weekend in clashes orchestrated by a gang leader, in retaliation for the death of one of his sons, believing he fell ill as a result of a curse.
The majority were women and men over 60 years of age and practitioners of voodoo, a religion with deep roots in the Caribbean country.
This barbaric act cost the lives of more than a hundred women and men, especially defenseless elderly people.denounced the government on the social network X.
According to the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD), the powerful gang leader Micanor Altes, also known as Monel Félix and Wa Mikano Micanord, ordered the murders when he was convinced that several residents caused his son’s illness with voodoo rites.
The criminal went to ask for help for the sudden illness of one of his children from a voodoo priest, who assured him that the elders of Wharf Jeremie, Cité Soleil district, the capital’s best-known slum, cursed him, which caused Félix’s anger, said the CPD.
His henchmen hunted down the elderly at Wharf Jeremie between Friday night and Saturday, executed them and burned their bodies.CPD director Fritznel Pierre told Haitian radio Magik 9.
According to the director of said NGO, the authorities’ balance of victims is incomplete because criminal groups prevent access to Cité Soleil, in the west of the Haitian capital.
But the head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, yesterday placed the victims of the massacre at at least 184.
A neighborhood resident told the AFP news agency that gang members had killed his 76-year-old father on Friday night.
They set fire to the corpses
The bandits set his corpse on fire. The family cannot even bury him because we have not been able to recover his body.denounced this resident, who did not want to give his name to protect those close to him who live in Wharf Jeremie.
These deaths bring the death toll in Haiti this year to five thousandadded the United Nations official during a press conference in Geneva.
The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, condemned the events scary and asked the authorities to bring those responsible to justice, according to his spokesperson.
For decades, Haiti has suffered from chronic political instability and a security crisis linked to the presence of gangs accused of murders, kidnappings and sexual violence against the population.
The actions of these gangs have worsened since February, when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince to overthrow then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Criminal gangs control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince and subject the country to their power with authorities incapable of stopping their attacks.
A U.N.-backed foreign force largely funded by Washington has begun deploying under the leadership of Kenyan police, but its successes against the violence have been limited.
