UN raises death toll for recent Cite Soleil massacre in Haiti’s capital

The UN now says 207 people were killed in a slum neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, earlier this month.

The United Nations has raised the death toll of a recent mass killing in Haiti, saying its investigation found that 207 people were killed by a gang, including dozens of older people and Vodou religious leaders.

In a report published on Monday, the UN office in Haiti detailed events that took place between December 6 and 11 in the Wharf Jeremie neighbourhood of Cite Soleil, a coastal slum in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The gang took people from their homes and a place of worship, interrogated them and then “executed” them with bullets and machetes before burning their bodies and throwing them into the sea, the report found.

Earlier this month, human rights groups in Haiti had estimated that more than 100 people were killed in the event, but the new UN investigation concluded that a total of 134 men and 73 women were slaughtered.

“We cannot pretend that nothing happened,” said María Isabel Salvador, the UN secretary-general’s special representative in Haiti.