Nearly 200 dead in Haiti massacre as voodoo community reportedly targeted

Port au Prince: Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the gover...

Port-au-Prince: Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of "unbearable cruelty."

The killings in the capital Port-au-Prince were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son's illness was caused by followers of the religion, according to civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD).

"He 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," a statement from the Haiti-based group said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the "horrific" violence, which his spokesman said left at least 184 people, including 127 elderly men and women, dead.

Calling the bloody episode an "act of barbarity, of unbearable cruelty," the office of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime said "this monstrous crime constitutes a direct attack on humanity."