Haiti gang massacre leaves over 180 dead after Voodoo accusations, say UN and rights groups

The government says the country’s gangs crossed a “red line” in deadly attack after a gang leader reportedly blamed Voodoo adherents for his child’s illness.

Haiti’s government says the country’s gangs have crossed a “red line” after allegedly killing over 180 people over the weekend, after a gang leader reportedly blamed Voodoo adherents for his child’s grave illness. A statement by the Haiti Prime Minister’s office accused gang leader Micanor “Mikanò” Altès and associates of carrying out the massacre on December 6 and 7, in impoverished Cité Soleil, in Haiti’s capital city Port-au-Prince. Micanor ordered the killing of elderly residents in the Wharf Jérémie area over suspicions that witchcraft had made his child sick, according to Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH). “The massacre was triggered by the severe illness of his child. Micanor sought advice from a voodoo priest (‘bókò’) who accused elderly people in the area of practicing witchcraft and harming the child,” RNDDH said in a report seen by CNN. Voodoo is widely practiced in parts of Haitian society. “On Friday, December 6, Micanor shot and killed at least sixty (60) elderly individuals. On Saturday, December 7, he and his group killed at least fifty (50) more using machetes and knives. Despite his actions, his ill child passed away,” it said. Citing sources in the area, Haiti’s Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) also said the attack targeted “all elderly people and Voodoo practitioners who, in (Micanor’s) imagination, would be capable of casting a bad spell on his son,” and left the bodies of victims mutilated in the streets.