At least 30 people are dead, many of them school-age children as young as 12, after a gathering advertised on TikTok turned tragic on Saturday at Haiti’s premier mountaintop fortress.
The deaths were confirmed by Haiti Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who told the Miami Herald “the government is mobilizing” the ministry of health, justices of the peace to respond to the tragedy.
The deaths occurred at the historic Citadelle Laferrière fortress in the town of Milot when heavy rains sent the children into a panic, triggering a stampede around 4 p.m.
“The majority of them died by asphyxiation,” Milot Mayor Wesner Joseph told the Herald. Joseph said the actual number of deaths remain unknown because the town’s three justices of the peace live in Cap-Haïtien and local authorities were waiting for them to arrive. The town of about 70,000 residents has no ambulance service and just one police vehicle for 13 officers.
The Citadelle, built between 1805 and 1820 is the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere and a powerful symbol of Haitian independence.
Thousands of people visit the fortress during Holy Week, and in recent years the pilgrimages have turned into a gathering for youth.
The activity the kids were attending, advertised on TikTok, was not authorized, Joseph said.
In addition to children being asphyxiated, victims were also trampled at the gates of the Citadelle, where crowds started gathering as early as 4:30 a.m. Saturday, the mayor said. Videos advertising the event even ask “if the Citadelle can hold all the people?’
Fils-Aimé called for the public to remain calm.
“The government is monitoring the situation with the utmost attention and calls upon the population to remain calm and exercise caution while awaiting the results of the ongoing investigations aimed at establishing the exact circumstances of this tragedy,” the statement from his office said.
“In these particularly trying circumstances, the Prime Minister and the Government of the Republic reaffirm their solidarity with the victims and the entire affected community.”
