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\nNearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of \u201cunbearable cruelty.\u201d
The killings in the capital Port-au-Prince were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son\u2019s illness was caused by followers of the religion, according to civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD).
It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital city in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes.
\u201cHe decided to cruelly punish all elderly people and voodoo practitioners who, in his imagination, would be capable of sending a bad spell on his son,\u201d a statement from the Haiti-based group said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the \u201chorrific\u201d violence, which his spokesman said left at least 184 people, including 127 elderly men and women, dead.
Calling the bloody episode an \u201cact of barbarity, of unbearable cruelty,\u201d the office of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime said \u201cthis monstrous crime constitutes a direct attack on humanity.\u201d
Both the CPD and UN said that the killings took place in the capital\u2019s western coastal neighborhood of Cite Soleil.
Reached by telephone by AFP, a resident confirmed the attacks and said that his 76-year-old father was among the victims.
\u201cThe bandits set fire to his body. The family cannot even organize a burial for him since we were unable to recover the body,\u201d he told AFP on condition of anonymity so as not to compromise the safety of other relatives.
\u201cI also fear for their lives,\u201d he said. \u201cI will try to get them out.\u201d
\u201cThe gang\u2019s soldiers were responsible for identifying victims in their homes to take them to the chief\u2019s stronghold to be executed,\u201d the CPD said.
\u201cReliable sources within the community report that more than a hundred people were massacred, their bodies mutilated and burned in the street,\u201d it said.
One of the organization\u2019s leaders, Fritznel Pierre, told Radio Magik 9 in an interview that the number of casualties was not exhaustive, as the area was difficult to access.
He reported that henchmen had hunted down old people and voodoo followers living in the Wharf Jeremie section of Cite Soleil between Friday evening and Saturday.
\u201cMotorcycle taxi drivers who tried to flee with targeted people were also executed,\u201d he said.
Voodoo was brought to Haiti by African slaves and is a mainstay of the country\u2019s culture. It was banned during French colonial rule and only recognized as an official religion by the Haitian government in 2003.
While it incorporates elements of other religious beliefs, including Catholicism, voodoo has been historically attacked by other religions.
Haiti has suffered from decades of instability but the situation escalated in February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry.
Gangs now control 80 percent of the city. Despite a Kenyan-led police support mission, backed by the United States and UN, violence has continued to soar.
The UN chief called on authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the weekend massacre and also reiterated calls for more international support to assist Haitian police in their battle against the gangs.
More than 700,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti, half of them children; added to this are 5,000 forced from their homes by the weekend massacre, said the International Organization for Migration.
The latest killings bring the death toll this year in Haiti to around 5,000 people, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n