Source: CNN

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.

At least 184 people were killed in the massacre, including an estimated 127 elderly men and women, the United Nations said.

“These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people,” Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said at a press conference Monday.

Since the massacre, Wharf Jérémie remains “under an informal siege” with elderly residents and Voodoo adherents still targeted by the broader Haitian gang alliance Viv Ansamn, according to RNDDH.