The UN publishes a new death toll for the elderly and Vodou religious leaders in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – The United Nations has raised the death toll in the latest massacre in which dozens of elderly people and Vodou religious leaders were killed by gangs in Haiti, and called on officials to bring the perpetrators to justice. .

The UN Integrated Office in Haiti said in a report published on Monday between December 6 and 11 that more than 207 people were killed by the Wharf Jeremie gang. A group of criminals took people from their homes and places of worship, interrogated them and killed them with bullets and machetes.

Earlier this month, Haitian human rights groups estimated that more than 100 people were killed in the massacre, but a new UN investigation doubles the number of victims.

“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.

Human rights organizations in Haiti say that the massacre began after the death of the son of Micanor Altès, the leader of the Wharf Jeremie gang, due to illness.

The human rights organization, Cooperative for Peace and Development, said that according to the information spread in the community, Altès blames the people of the neighborhood for his son’s illness.

“He decided to brutally punish all the elderly people and workers (Vodou) who, in his opinion, would be able to throw his son,” said the group in a statement issued shortly after the news of the killings.

In a report on Monday, the United Nations said people were searched in their homes and places of worship by Altès’ gang, where they were first interrogated and then taken to the place of execution.

The United Nations said the group tried to erase evidence of the killings by burning the bodies, or dismembering them and throwing them into the sea.

The massacre is the latest humanitarian disaster in Haiti, where gang violence has intensified since the assassination of the country’s president in 2021.

Haiti has struggled to organize elections that will fill the power vacuum and restore democracy.

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

According to the United Nations, more than 5,350 people have been killed in gang wars in Haiti this year.

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.”