\n<\/p>\n
The fortress was packed before the annual celebration at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, authorities say.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 12 Apr 2026<\/span>12 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n At least 30 people have been killed in a stampede in the northern countryside of Haiti, according to authorities, who warned that the death toll could rise.<\/p>\n Jean Henri Petit, head of Civil Protection for Haiti\u2019s Nord Department, said the stampede occurred on Saturday at the Citadelle Laferriere, an early-19th-century fortress built shortly after Haiti\u2019s independence from France.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n One of Haiti\u2019s most popular tourist attractions, \u201cLa Citadelle\u201d was packed with students and visitors who had come to participate in an annual celebration at the fortress, which was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1982.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime said in a statement that he \u201cextends his sincere condolences to the bereaved families and assures them of his profound solidarity during this time of mourning and great suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n He added that \u201cmany young people\u201d were in attendance at La Citadelle\u2019s celebrations, although it is unknown who died, and the prime minister\u2019s statement did not give an estimate of the death toll.<\/p>\n Petit said the stampede occurred at the entrance to the site,\u00a0adding that\u00a0the rain further exacerbated the disaster.<\/p>\n \u201cThe minister of Culture and Communication has confirmed the deaths of 30 people at the Citadelle Henri on Saturday, April 11, 2026,\u201d Culture Minister Emmanuel Menard told the AFP news agency in a written message.<\/p>\n \u201cThe injured are currently receiving the necessary medical care, and a rescue team is searching for any missing persons,\u201d Menard said, without giving an exact figure of those injured.<\/p>\n The deadly stampede comes as\u00a0Haiti\u00a0is grappling with\u00a0widespread violence by gangs\u00a0that have massacred civilians, as well as an\u00a0increasingly deadly crackdown\u00a0by security forces.<\/p>\n The island nation has also been the site of various disasters in recent years, including a 2024 fuel tank explosion that\u00a0killed two dozen people,\u00a0another fuel tank blast in 2021 that killed 90 people, and an earthquake that left some 2,000 people dead that same year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The fortress was packed before the annual celebration at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, authorities say. Published On 12 Apr 202612 Apr 2026 At least 30 people have been killed in a stampede in the northern countryside of Haiti, according to authorities, who warned that the death toll could rise. Jean Henri Petit, head of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Rescue operations continue<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"