Over 100 killed in massacre linked to “witchcraft” in Haiti

A massacre allegedly linked to “witchcraft” over the weekend has left more than 100 people dead in Haiti, according to authorities and an NGO. Most of the victims were elderly.

In a statement released by the Haitian government, between Friday and Saturday, a gang leader and his associates carried out the massacre in the Cité Soleil commune of Port-au-Prince, leaving over 100 people dead.

“The Government of the Republic condemns in the strongest terms the abject massacre perpetrated by gang leader Micanor Altès, alias Wa Mikanò, and his associates,” said the statement. “This act of barbarity, of unbearable cruelty, cost the lives of more than a hundred women and men, mainly defenseless old people.”

The National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) reported on Sunday that at least 110 people, all aged over 60, were killed, according to Reuters. The NGO later stated that the death toll could be higher and cited witnesses who described “mutilated bodies burned in the streets, including several young individuals who were killed attempting to save residents.”

RNDDH said that the violence was ordered by Felix, the gang leader, after his child became sick and a voodoo priest accused elderly people in the area of causing the illness through witchcraft. The NGO later reported that Felix’s child had died on Saturday afternoon.

The Haitian government stated that “this monstrous crime constitutes a direct attack on humanity and the republican order.”

Cité Soleil, a highly impoverished and densely populated commune in Port-au-Prince, is regarded as one of the poorest and most dangerous areas in the Western Hemisphere and one of the largest slums in the Northern Hemisphere.