PORT PRINCE: Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning an “abject massacre” of “unbearable cruelty.”

The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, according to civil organisation the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD).

“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.

UN rights commissioner Volker Turk said that at least 184 people were killed in the weekend violence. Calling the bloody episode an “act of barbarity, of unbearable cruelty,” the office of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime said his government “condemns in the strongest terms the abject massacre.” “This monstrous crime constitutes a direct attack on humanity and the republican order,” it added. Both the CPD and UN said that the massacre took place in the capital’s western coastal neighborhood of Cite Soleil.

Haiti has suffered from decades of instability but the situation escalated in February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital Port-au-Prince to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry. Gangs now control 80pc of the city. Despite a Kenyan-led police support mission, backed by the United States and UN, violence has continued to soar.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2024