The United Nations claimed Monday that almost 200 people were slain in violent weekend violence in Haiti’s capital, with accusations that a gang lord coordinated the slaughter of voodoo practitioners.
According to the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD), the executions were overseen by a “powerful gang leader” who believed his son’s illness was caused by members of the religion.
“He decided to cruelly punish all elderly people and voodoo practitioners who, in his imagination, would be capable of sending a bad spell on his son,” a statement from the Haiti-based group said.
“The gang’s soldiers were responsible for identifying victims in their homes to take them to the chief’s stronghold to be executed,” it added.
Over the weekend, UN rights commissioner Volker Turk stated that “at least 184 people were killed in violence orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang in the Haitian capital”.
According to UN data from October, more than 700,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti, with half of them being children.Voodoo was brought to Haiti by African slaves and is an integral part of the country’s culture.
It was prohibited under French colonial control and was only recognized as an official religion by the government in 2003.
While voodoo combines parts of other religious beliefs, like as Catholicism, it has historically been condemned by other religions.
“These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people,” he told reporters in Geneva.
Both the CPD and the UN said that the slaughter occurred in Cite Soleil, the capital’s western seaside neighbourhood.
Haiti has had decades of unrest, but the situation deteriorated in February when armed groups started coordinated attacks in the capital, Port-au-Prince, attempting to depose then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Gangs now control 80% of the city, and despite a Kenyan-led police support mission sponsored by the US and the UN, violence has escalated.
According to the CPD, the majority of the victims of Friday and Saturday’s violence were over the age of 60, although several young individuals who attempted to save others were also killed.
“Reliable sources within the community report that more than a hundred people were massacred, their bodies mutilated and burned in the street,” a statement said.
