UNITED NATIONS, CMC – A brand new United Nations report says just a little over two weeks after a surge of violence within the Cité Soleil commune of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, greater than 207 individuals had been executed by the Wharf Jérémie gang.
The report by the UN Built-in Workplace in Haiti (BINUH) and the Workplace of the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) covers the interval between December 6 and 11, throughout which 134 males and 73 girls had been killed.
The UN mentioned on Monday that a lot of the victims had been older adults accused of practising voodoo and inflicting the gang chief’s little one’s sickness.
Different victims included those that tried to flee the realm for worry of reprisals or had been suspected of leaking details about the crimes to native media, the UN mentioned.
“Tracked down at their properties and in a spot of worship, the victims had been taken to the gang’s stronghold the place they had been held captive and interrogated inside a so-called ‘coaching heart,’ the UN mentioned.
“They had been then taken to a close-by execution web site earlier than being shot or killed with machetes,” it added. “The gang tried to erase all proof by burning the our bodies or dismembering them after which throwing them into the ocean.”
María Isabel Salvador, the Particular Consultant of the Secretary-Normal in Haiti and head of BINUH mentioned: “We can not act as if nothing occurred. I name on the Haitian justice system to conduct an intensive investigation into these horrific crimes and to arrest and punish their perpetrators, in addition to those that help them.
“I additionally name on the authorities to rapidly set up a specialised judicial unit to deal with this kind of crime,” she added.
Since 2022, the UN mentioned the Wharf Jérémie gang has been preventing rival gangs for management of the roads resulting in the capital’s principal port and its container terminal.
This yr alone, the UN mentioned BINUH and OHCHR have recorded greater than 5,350 individuals killed and greater than 2,155 others injured as a direct results of these acts of violence.
Moreover, the UN mentioned the gang chief is claimed to impose “taxes” on the consortium managing the port, significantly for the discharge of containers, in addition to on trucking corporations transporting items from the port.
“He has additionally positioned himself as a key middleman for nationwide and worldwide actors looking for to entry the native populations dwelling in Wharf Jérémie,” the UN mentioned.
“The documented crimes in Wharf Jérémie happen in an alarming context of violence and human rights violations and abuses in Haiti, involving each legal gangs, self-defense teams, and unorganized members of the inhabitants,” it added.
In response to the report, credible sources additionally point out the involvement of specialised models of the Haitian Nationwide Police (PNH).
