At least 110 people have been brutally killed in Haiti after a voodoo priest blamed them for witchcraft that caused his son to fall ill and die, the BBC reports today.
According to reports, members of an unnamed gang then rounded up dozens of residents over the age of 60, and then killed them with knives and machetes. Locals reported seeing mutilated bodies being burned in the streets.
Local media reported that the elderly were singled out because they were believed to be practicing voodoo, after the gang leader was told that they had caused his son's illness.
Human rights groups said the man who ordered the killings was a certain Monel Felix, known as Mikano. He reportedly controls the port area of the capital Port-au-Prince.
While details of the massacre are still emerging, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said today that the number of people killed over the weekend "in violence orchestrated by a powerful gang leader" is nearly 200. If that number is confirmed, the number of victims of this weekend's killing will make the deadliest incident so far this year in Haiti.
The humanitarian organization National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) estimates that 60 people were killed on Friday, while another 50 were arrested and killed on Saturday, after the gang leader's son died of an illness.
Gangs that control about 85 percent of Port-au-Prince have forced hundreds of thousands of Haitians to flee their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and more than 700.000 people, half of whom are children, are internally displaced.
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