The UN raises the death toll in the latest Cite Soleil massacre in the Haitian capital | Human Rights Issues

The UN now says 207 people were killed in a slum in the capital, Port-au-Prince, earlier this month.

The United Nations has raised the death toll in the recent massacre in Haiti, saying its investigation found that 207 people were killed by the gang, including dozens of elderly people and Vodou religious leaders.

In a report published on Monday, the UN office in Haiti details the events that took place between December 6 and 11 in the Wharf Jeremie area of ​​Cite Soleil, a coastal slum in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The group took people from their homes and places of worship, interrogated them and “killed” them with bullets and machetes before burning their bodies and throwing them into the sea, the report said.

Earlier this month, Haitian human rights groups estimated that more than 100 people died in the incident, but a new UN investigation concluded that 134 men and 73 women were killed.

“We cannot pretend that nothing happened,” said María Isabel Salvador, the special representative of the UN secretary-general in Haiti.

“I call on the Haitian judiciary to thoroughly investigate these horrific crimes and arrest and punish the perpetrators, as well as those who support them,” he said in a statement.

The Haitian government acknowledged the killing of the elderly in a statement released earlier this month, and promised to prosecute those responsible for the “unspeakable massacre”.

The UN Security Council issued a statement on Monday condemning the killings by gangs and expressing its “grave concern” over the crisis in Haiti, highlighting food insecurity and child labor by gangs.

Insecurity and isolation

Insecurity has gotten so bad in Haiti that the UN recently ordered some of its staff to leave the country or move from the capital to safer places.

The country is increasingly isolated after the international airport in Port-au-Prince was closed due to gunfire on passenger planes.

The UN is debating what steps to take in Haiti after an international security team led by 400 Kenyan police struggled to restore law and order.

Another option being considered is a return to full peacekeeping operations, despite the mixed results of previous deployments, including the “stabilization” mission, MINUSTAH, which began in 2004 and left in 2017.

'King Micanor'

Human rights groups in Haiti say the Wharf Jeremie killing spree began after the son of Micanor Altes, a local gang leader, died of illness.

Witnesses told the groups that Altes, known as “King Micanor”, accused the people of the neighborhood of causing his son's illness by bewitching him.

In a report on Monday, the UN said that people were searched in their homes and places of worship by the Altes criminal group, where they were first interrogated and then taken to the place of execution.

The killing is the latest humanitarian disaster in Haiti, where gang violence has intensified since the assassination of the country's president, Jovenel Moise, in an attempted coup in 2021.

The Caribbean nation is currently governed by a transitional council that includes representatives of the business community, civil society and political organizations, but its government does not control much of the capital, and gangs are constantly fighting over ports, highways and neighborhoods.

According to the UN, more than 5,358 people have been killed in gang wars in Haiti this year and another 2,155 injured. More than 17,000 people have been killed or injured in gang-related violence in Haiti since the beginning of 2022.