More than 200 people were executed in the Wharf Jérémie massacre in Haiti

Just over two weeks after violence broke out in the Cité Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, a UN report concluded that more than 207 people were executed by the band of the town of Wharf Jérémie, west of the Haitian capital.

He report of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights indicates that between last December 6 and 11 they were 134 men and 73 women murdered.

Most of the victims were elderly accused of practicing voodoo and being the cause of the illness of the band leader’s son.

Other victims included people who tried to flee the area out of fear to retaliation or who were suspected of leaking information about the crimes to the local media.

Firearms and machetes

Pursued in their homes or in a place of worship, the victims were taken to the gang’s stronghold where They remained captive and interrogated in a “training center”.

They were then taken to a nearby execution site before shoot them down or kill them with machetes. The gang tried to erase all evidence burning the bodies or dismembering them before throwing them into the sea.

“We can’t act like nothing happened“, declared the special representative of the Secretary General in Haiti, María Isabel Salvador.

“I urge the Haitian justice system to carry out a Thorough investigation into these horrible crimes and arrest and punish their perpetratorsas well as those who support them. “I also urge the authorities to quickly create a specialized judicial unit to deal with this type of crime,” he emphasized.

Alarming violence

From 2022, the Wharf Jérémie gang faces rival gangs for the control of the roads leading to the main port of the capital and its container terminal.

This year alone, BINUH and the Office of the High Commissioner have recorded more than 5350 people killed and more than 2,155 injuries as a direct result of these acts of violence.

Furthermore, the leader of the gang charges “taxes” to the consortium that manages the portespecially for the release of containers, as well as trucking companies that transport goods from the port.

It has also positioned itself as a key intermediary for national and international actors who seek access to local populations living in Wharf Jérémie.

The crimes documented at the Jérémie dock occur in an alarming context of violence and human rights violations in Haiti, in which criminal gangs, vigilante groups and individuals from the population who do not belong to any organization participate.

Credible sources too suggest the participation of specialized units of the National Police of Haiti, according to the report.