By At least 207 people were killed by members of the Wharf Jeremie gang in Haiti’s portside neighborhood of Cite Soleil earlier this month, the United Nations said in a report on Monday, revising up a death toll it initially estimated at 187.
In a new report on the massacre, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said at least 134 men and 73 women, most of them elderly residents accused of witchcraft, were killed in less than a week of mass executions, abductions, and raids by some 300 members of the Wharf Jeremie gang. Gang leader Monel “Mikano” Felix ordered the attacks after his child got sick, accusing local residents of causing the illness through Voudou. Many of the victims were abducted from Voudou temples and religious ceremonies, the U.N. said.
Police officers patrol after dispersing demonstrators, who were calling for help from the government and security forces after gangs attacked neighborhoods and set houses on fire, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti August 19, 2024.
The killings have shocked the Caribbean nation, which has been engulfed in a worsening gang conflict that has compounded severe food shortages, while neighboring countries have been slow to provide promised security assistance. Mikano’s gang has controlled a small but strategically important area between key ports, surrounding warehouses, and national highways out of the capital for some 15 years, the U.N. said.
After the killings, gang members attempted to erase evidence by confiscating mobile phones, burning bodies and dumping them into the sea.
Since January, over 5,300 people have been killed in Haiti, and more than 12,000 have died since the beginning of 2022, according to the U.N. Additionally, over 700,000 people have been internally displaced.
Residents carry belongings as they leave their homes due to gang violence, in the Pernier section of Port-au-Prince, Haiti January 30, 2024.
