Two women religious were murdered on March 31 by an armed gang in the city of Mirebalais, as long-standing violence continues to destabilise Haiti. Source: OSV News.
Sr Evanette Onezaire and Sr Jeanne Voltaire of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus were in Mirebalais — located some 50 kilometres from the capital, Port-au-Prince — when armed gangs launched an attack.
The sisters, who had been on a mission to the city, took refuge with other civilians but were discovered by gang members and slain.
The gangs also seized control of the city’s prison, releasing at least 530 prisoners, according to Arnel Remy, an attorney and general coordinator for Haiti’s Collective of Lawyers for the Defence of Human Rights.
Local media reported that gangs also launched a March 31 attack on the town of Saut-d’Eau, some eight kilometres west of Mirebalais and a destination for a popular annual Vodou-Catholic pilgrimage attracting thousands.
The deaths of Sr Evanette and S Jeanne were reported by Aid to the Church in Need, which since 1947 has worked under papal guidance to serve persecuted Catholics.
ACN communicated directly with Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-au-Prince, who told the organisation in a message on Tuesday that Mirebalais is now “controlled by bandits”.
Port-au-Prince has for the past few years been the locus of the nation’s armed gang conflict.
However, the Mirebalais attack, along with the October 2024 gang-led massacre in the town of Pont-Sondé, shows that violence is increasingly extending into Haiti’s heartland.
The Pont-Sondé attack ranks as the worst in Haiti’s recent history, which has been plagued by multiple, sustained crises such as political instability, natural disasters, foreign intervention and international debt.
Some 5.4 million Haitians face “high levels of acute food insecurity” due to the armed gang violence, with 6000 residents experiencing “catastrophic levels of hunger and a collapse of their livelihoods,” according to a report released in August by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
FULL STORY
Two women religious murdered in Haiti amid that nation’s ‘way of the Cross’ (By Gina Christian, OSV News)
