Haiti gang massacres around 180 people after leader blames witchcraft for sick child

Around 180 people have been killed over the weekend in Haiti’s Cite Soleil area, after attacks reportedly ordered by a gang leader who suspected his child had been made ill using witchcraft.

“A red line has been crossed,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement on Monday, adding it would “mobilise all forces to track down and annihilate” those responsible, including Wharf Jeremie gang leader Monel “Mikano” Felix, whom it accused of planning the attack.

It said the victims were mostly elderly.

The National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH), a NGO in Haiti that monitors state institutions and promotes human rights education, on Sunday said at least 110 people - all aged over 60 - had been killed in Cite Soleil over the weekend.

It later said the death toll could be higher and cited witnesses as saying that “mutilated bodies were burned in the streets, including several young individuals who were killed attempting to save residents.”

RNDDH said Felix had ordered the violence after his child became sick, and after seeking advice from a voodoo priest who accused elderly people in the area of harming the child through witchcraft. The group said Felix’s child had died on Saturday afternoon.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the events outlined by RNDDH. Felix did not immediately comment on the accusations.

Cite Soleil, a densely populated slum by the port of the capital Port-au-Prince, is among the poorest and most violent areas of Haiti.

Tight gang control, including the restriction of mobile phone use, has limited residents’ ability to share information about the massacre.

The government, riven with political infighting, has struggled to contain gangs’ growing power in and around the capital. The armed groups are accused of indiscriminate killings, gang rapes, ransom kidnappings and fuelling critical food shortages.

In October, the Gran Grif gang took responsibility for the killing of at least 115 people in Pont-Sonde, a town in Haiti’s breadbasket Artibonite region. They said it was retaliation for residents helping a self-defence group hinder their road toll operations.

A UN-backed security mission was requested by Haiti in 2022 and approved a year later but so far has just partially deployed and remains deeply under-resourced.

A White House security spokesperson echoed the call for urgent international support for the mission and said the United States was “appalled”.