For many Vodou practitioners in Port-au-Prince, the November 1 and 2 celebrations for the Gede spirits no longer take place where they used to, Vant Bèf Info reported on Sunday. Armed groups have made several of the capital's cemeteries hard or impossible to reach.

The Grand Cimetière of Port-au-Prince, for generations a central place for Gede rituals and for families visiting their dead, has lost its usual accessibility as gang violence spread through the city center, the outlet said.

Practitioners have moved to places still outside the control of armed groups, such as the Fragneau-Ville cemetery in Delmas 75. Gatherings there are smaller, and the celebrations are now scattered across the metropolitan area rather than concentrated in one place.

The gangs “do not only destroy infrastructure and neighborhoods,” the article said; they also disrupt the collective memory carried by these traditions. It warned that Haiti's heritage must not become another victim of the armed groups' terror.