A recent UN report reveals that 200 people have lost their lives in a brutal outbreak of violence over the weekend in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Reports suggest the massacre was orchestrated by an influential gang leader in Cite Soleil, driven by superstitions about voodoo practitioners allegedly causing his son's illness.
The Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) revealed that the gang leader ordered his followers to target elderly individuals and voodoo practitioners, believing them responsible for casting a harmful spell on his child.
Victims were forcibly taken from their homes to the gang’s base, where they were executed. Most victims were over 60 years old, but younger people attempting to intervene also lost their lives.
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UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk confirmed at least 184 deaths, adding that this brings Haiti’s death toll in 2024 to over 5,000. The CPD further reported that many bodies were mutilated and burned on the streets.
Haiti has faced decades of instability, which escalated earlier this year when armed groups began coordinated attacks on the government. Gangs now control 80% of Port-au-Prince despite ongoing international efforts, including a Kenyan-led police mission supported by the UN and the US.
The violence has displaced more than 700,000 people, half of whom are children, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Voodoo, a significant part of Haitian culture rooted in African traditions, has long been misunderstood and persecuted. Although it incorporates elements of Catholicism, voodoo was officially recognized as a religion in 2003.
