Gang attack in Kenscoff: around forty dead near Port-au-Prince
Armed gang members killed more than forty people in Kenscoff during the night of 23 to 24 August. The mayor describes it as "a night of terror".
Massacre in Kenscoff: gangs strike displaced persons camp in church
According to information.tv5monde.com, more than forty people were killed in an armed gang attack in Kenscoff, a municipality perched in the hills above Port-au-Prince, during the night of Sunday 23 to Monday 24 August 2026.
"We have counted around forty bodies. The search continues. Some people are still missing," declared Jean Massillon, mayor of Kenscoff. The elected official described the events as "a night of terror".
The attackers entered a camp for displaced persons set up inside a church. "They executed several people. There are deaths and dozens of wounded. Some people have been abducted," Massillon added.
The office of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé expressed, in an official statement, its "profound compassion" for the victims and their families. The government announced the dispatch of reinforcements to restore security in the area.
Kenscoff has for several months been the scene of clashes between armed groups seeking to extend their control over the region. The situation reflects a political, economic and security crisis that has been affecting Haiti for a long time, but which has worsened in recent years. Gangs have been multiplying murders, abductions, rapes and the recruitment of children.
Out of approximately eleven million inhabitants, nearly 1.5 million are internally displaced due to violence, according to an estimate published in June by the International Organization for Migration. The IOM also emphasised that these attacks are not limited to the capital.
A Gang Suppression Force (FRG), supported by the UN, is in the process of being established to assist local police forces, which are widely overwhelmed. This force is ultimately to comprise 5,500 foreign police officers and soldiers; the number of personnel already deployed has not been disclosed.
Source: Google News HT — Port-au-Prince