International

Haiti: Gang kills 110 people accused of witchcraft

Published

2 weeks ago

December 10, 2024

Haiti: Gang kills 110 people accused of witchcraft

No fewer than 110 mostly elderly people have been brutally murdered by gang members in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, according to a human rights group.

The National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH) alleged a local gang leader attacked them when his kid became ill and died.

The gang leader reportedly sought advice from a voodoo priest, who blamed the boy’s mysterious sickness on older neighbours practicing “witchcraft.”

According to the United Nations, “a staggering 5,000” people have been slain in Haiti this year as a result of spiralling gang violence.

While facts of the massacre are still coming, the UN’s human rights commissioner, Volker Türk, estimated the number of persons killed over the weekend “in violence orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang” at 184.

The deaths took place in the capital’s Cité Soleil area.

According to reports, gang members took scores of citizens over the age of 60 from their homes in the Wharf Jérémie region, rounding them up and shooting or stabbing them to death with knives and machetes.

Residents reported seeing mangled bodies being burnt on the streets.

The RNDDH estimated that 60 people were slaughtered on Friday, and another 50 were picked up and murdered on Saturday, after the gang leader’s son died of illness.

While RNDDH stated that all of the victims were above the age of 60, another rights group claimed that several younger individuals who attempted to defend the elderly were also killed.

According to local media, elderly individuals who are thought to practice voodoo were singled out because the gang leader was told their son’s illness was caused by them.

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According to rights groups, the individual who ordered the executions was Monel Felix, also known as Mikano.

Mikano is recognised for controlling Wharf Jérémie, a strategic sector in the capital’s port.

According to Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, a Haiti expert with the Global Initiative against Transnational Crime (GI-TOC), the area is modest yet difficult for security forces to access.

According to local media, Mikano’s gang kept inhabitants from leaving Wharf Jérémie, thus news of the brutal killings spread slowly.

The group is part of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, which dominates much of Haiti’s capital.

Since President Jovenel Moïse’s killing in 2021, Haiti has experienced a surge in gang violence.

Data acquired by GI-TOC reveal that the murder rate fell between May and September of this year, after opposing gangs formed an uneasy agreement.

However, the gangs’ attempts to expand their turf beyond their strongholds in the capital have resulted in particularly deadly occurrences in the last two months, with ordinary residents rather than rival gang members becoming increasingly targeted.

On October 3, 115 people were slain in the little village of Pont-Sondé, Artibonite department.

The Gran Grif gang purportedly carried out the killing in revenge for some people joining a vigilante organisation to oppose Gran Grif’s attempts to blackmail communities.

If confirmed, the UN death toll for this weekend’s killings in Cité Soleil will make it the deadliest incident of the year thus far.

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With gangs controlling an estimated 85% of Port-au-Prince and expanding areas of the countryside, hundreds of thousands of Haitians have been forced to evacuate their homes.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, there are over 700,000 internally displaced individuals in the country, half of whom are children.

Gang members frequently utilise sexual abuse, including gang rape, to instill fear among the locals.

In a report published two weeks ago, Human Rights Watch researcher Nathalye Cotrino noted that “the rule of law in Haiti is so broken that members of criminal groups rape girls and women without fear of repercussions.”

Attempts by the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission to stop the violence have so far been unsuccessful.

The international police force landed in Haiti in June to support the Haitian National Police, but it is understaffed and lacks the required weaponry to combat the heavily armed gangs.

Meanwhile, the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC), the organisation established to conduct elections and restore democratic order, appears to be in disarray.

The TPC dismissed the interim prime minister last month and appears to have made little headway in organising elections.

“They reign over a mountain of ashes,” writes GI-TOC’s Romain Le Cour Grandmaison on the council in his report.

Haiti: Gang kills 110 people accused of witchcraft

International

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

Published

2 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.

“Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” he said.

Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

He said HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.

Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group.

They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves to be victim of the crimes of the Assad regime.

He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.

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Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different mindset.

He said he believed in education for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.

“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

And when asked whether the consumption of alcohol would be allowed, Sharaa said: “There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues.”

He added that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.

Sharaa was relaxed throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes, and tried to offer reassurance to all those who believe his group has not broken with its extremist past.

Many Syrians do not believe him.

The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

BBC

International

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

Published

2 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it struck ports and energy infrastructure it alleges are used by Houthi militants, after intercepting a missile fired by the group.

Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen — including ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.”

The announcement came shortly after Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port… and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

The strikes were the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen.

On Monday, the Houthis claimed a missile launch they said was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa” — a reference to Israel’s Tel Aviv area.

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Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the group had become a “global threat,” pointing to Iran’s support for the militants.

“We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East, that threatens the state of Israel,” he said.

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

International

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

Published

2 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

A Palestinian boy looks as others inspect the damage at a tent camp sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

CAIRO: The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.

On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said an agreement could be signed in coming days on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in central areas, and Rafah near the border with Egypt.

In Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesman.

Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of “ethnic cleansing” to depopulate the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.

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Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its daily death toll between combatants and non-combatants.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck a number of Hamas militants planning an imminent attack against Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.

Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility, wounding seven medics and one patient inside the hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the Central Gaza camp of Bureij, Palestinian families began leaving some districts after the army posted new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from the area.

CEASEFIRE GAINS MOMENTUM

The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.

In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy for hostage affairs. Trump has threatened that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by Jan. 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, other knowledgeable sources said. The CIA declined to comment.

Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday looking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas on a deal Biden outlined in May.

There have been repeated rounds of talks over the past year, all of which have failed, with Israel insisting on retaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release hostages until the troops pulled out.

The war in Gaza, triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 250 abducted as hostages, has sent shockwaves across the Middle East and left Israel isolated internationally.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

ARAB NEWS