‘No one should live this way,’ says Haiti Prime Minister following recent massacres

Haiti’s Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé held his first press conference on Thursday, over a month after his appointment, to address the escalating gang violence that has left the nation reeling from recent massacres.

Fils-Aimé expressed deep condolences to the victims of recent attacks in Wharf Jérémie, a neighborhood in the capital Port-au-Prince, and in Petite Rivière in the central Artibonite region. He described the victims as “innocent people preyed upon by gangs” and called the violence “unacceptable.”

Local human rights organizations have reported that more than 100 people, primarily elderly individuals aged 60 to 80, including Vodou religious leaders, were killed in Cité-Soleil by a gang leader seeking revenge for his son’s death. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights placed the death toll at 184.