At least 47 people were killed and more than 50 others abducted after armed attackers stormed a community near Haiti’s capital earlier this week, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The assault is believed to be one of Haiti’s largest mass kidnappings in recent years. A gang leader has threatened to execute the hostages if authorities kill any gang members while attempting to retake control of the hillside community above Port-au-Prince.
Sunday’s attack in Kenscoff shattered growing hopes that security conditions in the crisis-hit Caribbean nation were beginning to improve.
“This is a major political and security test, for the government, for the police and for the international mission,” said Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Le Cour said the threat to kill hostages places authorities in a dangerous bind: if security forces hold back, they appear unable to protect civilians; if they move in and hostages are killed, gangs will seek to blame the state.
Kenscoff resident Marc Paul, 42, said gang members abducted his brother, stepmother, stepfather and two cousins. He said his 16-year-old niece was also kidnapped and raped before managing to escape and reunite with him.
“I had to run over bodies,” Paul said, describing his desperate flight from the attack. “I can’t sleep knowing all these people died.”
Paul said his family had already lost their home in a previous gang attack in January 2025, though he described Sunday’s violence as far worse. Reacting to a video posted by the gangs, he said he feared the worst: “My brother is probably going to die.”
A threat posted on social media
In a video posted on social media, the gang leader threatened Vladimir Paraison, director of Haiti’s National Police.
“Paraison, if any of our soldiers are hurt, I will kill all of them,” he said, referring to the hostages.
The gang member identified himself as Izo 2, a reference to Izo, or Johnson André, one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders.
Le Cour said Izo 2 is also known as “Didi” and leads the armed group in Kenscoff on behalf of and in coordination with Izo and other gang leaders.
Kenson Paul, the 17-year-old nephew of Marc Paul, said he managed to escape the attackers.
“They have not called us to let us know what they want,” he said of the gang. “I worry for my family’s life.”
Le Cour said the aim of Sunday’s attack could be to force Haiti’s police and the U.N.-backed gang suppression force to disperse even more of their limited resources.
“They don’t have enough personnel,” Le Cour said in a phone interview. “If you force them to deploy more troops, it would inevitably be at the expense of other areas.”
The attack might also just be a show of force and a message to Haiti’s government and police as the country prepares to hold general elections on Dec. 13 for the first time in more than a decade.
“This is a message to the government and the police that their claims of protection do not match reality,” Le Cour said. “The gangs are saying: when we choose to attack, we can, and we will succeed.”
Attacks on Kenscoff have escalated
The first major attack on Kenscoff occurred in January 2025, and since then, there have been sporadic attacks in the mountains surrounding the city center.
But Sunday’s attack was the largest yet. At least five of the 47 people killed were children, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, known as BINUH.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack on Tuesday, noting that 22 of the victims were reportedly executed in a church compound where they had sought shelter: “The relentless gang attacks on communities and the loss of lives underscore the alarming security conditions in Haiti,” he said.
Kenscoff Mayor Jean Massillon told The Associated Press on Tuesday that gangs set fire to 25 homes and killed two government employees including his cousin, who served as his security detail.
“The atrocity of this crime reminds us that we have to continue working stronger every day to bring peace to the community,” Massillon said. “I’m optimistic that the state will continue working to eradicate the gangs in Kenscoff.”
Gangs are coveting Kenscoff because it allows them to surround and control the upscale community of Pétion-Ville and alternate routes connecting Haiti’s capital to its southern region, said María Fernanda Arocha, a researcher with the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data.
Between January and August this year, security operations had managed to reduce violence in Kenscoff by 66% prior to the attack, she said in a statement.
“While security forces have concentrated their efforts on operations aimed at regaining control in the central areas of Port-au-Prince, criminal groups have instead sought to expand into rural communities that are vulnerable due to the limited response capacity of the police, but which remain strategic hubs,” she added.
Haitians demand police protection
Some survivors accused the government of not providing enough protection prior to the attack, with Haiti’s National Police rejecting those accusations.
Le Cour said that if police and armored vehicles were indeed stationed in Kenscoff prior to the attack, then the assertion is concerning: “You let the gangs come in even if you had everything in place?”
Armed men control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince and swaths of land in Haiti’s central region and beyond.
Gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,050 people were reported killed from January to June, according to U.N. statistics released Tuesday.
The U.N. noted that nearly 800 rapes were reported from April to June, with 87% of those cases representing collective rapes.
At least 81 people also were reported kidnapped during that time period, according to a new U.N. report.
“These figures represent only a portion of the total number of people kidnapped,” it stated. “In many cases, victims’ relatives do not report kidnappings to the police or service providers and choose to negotiate directly with the kidnappers, believing that this approach allows for a quicker release and avoids possible reprisals.”
The number of kidnappings reported from April to June represents a more than 40% increase compared with the previous quarter.
