Stampede at Haitian fortress kills at least 25 during festival

A crush at Haiti’s Citadelle Laferrière killed at least 25 people and injured dozens during an annual celebration at the mountaintop fortress near Milot in the country’s north.

Authorities said the stampede unfolded on Saturday, April 11, 2026, as a large crowd gathered at the UNESCO World Heritage site, one of Haiti’s most important historical landmarks and a symbol of independence. Officials initially gave a higher death toll, with some reports putting the number at 30, before revising it to at least 25 dead. Local authorities said many of the injured suffered asphyxiation, trampling and loss of consciousness.

The site’s significance sharpened the shock. Citadelle Laferrière, also called La Citadelle or Citadelle Henri, was built in the early 19th century after Haitian independence and is closely linked to Henry Christophe, the revolutionary leader who commissioned it. The fortress was constructed by tens of thousands of former slaves and has long stood as one of Haiti’s best-known tourist destinations and a national emblem of hard-won freedom.

The scale of the crowd turned the celebration into a public safety emergency. Dozens of people were taken to hospitals, and some attendees were reported missing as rescue teams continued recovery efforts at the fortress and in surrounding areas. The death toll, the injuries and the number of people still unaccounted for pointed to a disorderly evacuation in a place where steep terrain and limited access can make an emergency far more difficult to manage.

Haitian officials declared three days of national mourning and urged the public to avoid rumors and cooperate with rescue teams. Witnesses described relatives grieving at the fortress after victims were carried away, a grim scene that underscored how quickly a cultural gathering can become a mass-casualty event when crowd control, emergency response and access routes fail to keep pace with the size of the gathering.

The Citadelle, built between 1805 and 1820 and taking years of labor to complete, is usually a place where Haitians and visitors come to honor endurance and independence. Instead, it became the center of one of the country’s deadliest peacetime tragedies, with the full toll of the crush still likely to be measured in missing people, traumatized families and unanswered questions about how the fortress could be made safer.