Port-au-Prince, 09 December (IANS). At least 110 people were murdered in Haiti’s Cite Soleil slum over the weekend. A leading human rights group said a gang leader targeted the elderly because he suspected they had made his child sick through witchcraft.
According to media reports, gang leader Monel ‘Mikano’ Felix along with his ‘Viv Ansanam’ group carried out this massacre.
The National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDH) said that when Felix’s child became ill, he consulted a Voodoo priest. The priest accused the elders of the area of harming the child through witchcraft, which enraged Felix and ordered a massacre.
The statement said gang members killed at least 60 people on Friday and 50 on Saturday with knives and axes. All of the deceased were above 60 years of age.
Cite Soleil is a densely populated settlement near the port of the capital Port-au-Prince. It is considered one of the poorest and most violent areas of Haiti.
Efforts to tighten controls on gangs, including bans on mobile phone use, have made it particularly difficult for residents to share information about killings.
According to media reports, in October the United Nations estimated that Felix’s gang numbered about 300 people and was active around Fort Dimanche and La Saline.
At least 71 civilians were murdered in La Saline in November 2018, while hundreds of homes were set on fire.
The government, plagued by political infighting, is struggling to control the growing power of armed gangs in and around the capital.
–IANS
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