Haiti in the Blood: The Kenscoff Massacre

Translated by Maria Pia Longo

The Death Toll of the Massacre

A powerful coalition of criminal gangs attacked the once-peaceful agricultural community of Kenscoff, located in the hills of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. At least 47 people were killed and over 50 kidnapped in the attack, which took place on the night between August 23 and 24. The mayor of Kenscoff, Jean Massillon, stated that on Sunday evening armed men raided the community, burning homes and killing residents. “It is still impossible to establish a definitive death toll due to access difficulties and communication problems,” Mayor Massillon said. Robert Jean, a resident of Kenscoff, recounted hearing gunshots before dawn and trying to wake sleeping neighbors to save them from death. Another resident, Verti Enold-Saint, openly criticized the Haitian police over the incident: “If only we had a good police force that had placed an armored vehicle here, what happened could have been avoided.” Marc Paul, 42, a resident of Kenscoff, recounted that the gangs kidnapped his family members, adding that his 16-year-old niece was abducted and raped before managing to reunite with him.

Gang Strategy and an Open Challenge to the State

The events in Kenscoff are believed to constitute one of the largest mass kidnappings in Haiti in recent years. The situation in the country remains deeply critical: the government is weak, and non-state actors such as criminal gangs operate with relative ease, openly challenging the State. The Kenscoff attack shattered the belief that security in Haiti was improving, particularly following the authorization of the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) by the UN Security Council on September 30, 2025, whose deployment officially began on April 1, 2026, with the arrival of the first contingents. This operation replaced the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), authorized by the UN in October 2023. Unlike the MSS, which was a multinational force meant to support the Haitian police, the GSF has a significantly broader structure—numbering up to 5,550 personnel—and is specifically tasked with fighting and suppressing Haitian gangs, thereby operating with greater autonomy.

Despite this, the attack on Kenscoff has plunged Haiti further into absolute uncertainty. Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, stated that this incident represents a major political and security test for the government, the police, and the international GSF mission, as the gangs have threatened to kill the abducted hostages. The threat to execute the hostages is a trap: if security forces do not intervene, they fail to protect them; if they do intervene, the hostages will be executed, and the gangs will blame the State. María Fernanda Arocha, a researcher at Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, stated that between January and August 2026, security operations had managed to reduce violence in Kenscoff by 66% prior to the attack, adding: “While security forces concentrated their efforts on operations aimed at retaking control of central areas of Port-au-Prince, criminal groups instead sought to expand into rural communities—vulnerable due to limited police response capacity, yet remaining strategic hubs.”

Romain Le Cour believes the objective behind such a brutal attack could be to force the Haitian police and the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force to further disperse their limited resources. By doing so, the criminal gangs aim to compel the deployment of more troops to the affected area at the expense of other regions. Alternatively, the attack could simply serve as a show of force against the Haitian government and police, signaling that the gangs can strike whenever they choose and will always succeed when they do.

A Country Completely Out of Control

Haitian citizens are at the mercy of criminal gangs that openly defy the State—non-state actors who do not hesitate to massacre and abduct defenseless people to assert their dominance. Conditions in the country have become unlivable, to the extent that several survivors of the Kenscoff massacre have openly accused the government of failing to provide adequate protection prior to the attack. Haiti's National Police Chief, Paraison, has ordered an investigation to determine the truth behind the attack and ascertain whether there was negligence or complicity on the part of the police force.

Gang violence has displaced approximately 1.5 million people across Haiti. According to UN data (United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti), between April and June 2026, at least 1,408 deaths and 656 injuries were recorded. During that same quarter, approximately 796 gang-related rapes were reported, with gang rapes accounting for 87% of cases. Victims were subjected to extreme brutality, including severe beatings, rapes committed in front of their children or other family members, and the burning of their homes as a means to "punish" and forcibly displace populations living in areas controlled by rival gangs.

It is vital to note that these figures represent only a fraction of the reality. Many victims' families avoid reporting kidnappings or violence to the police out of fear of gang retaliation, often preferring to negotiate directly with the gangs in an attempt to expedite the release of hostages. Haiti remains a country out of control; what is most alarming is that despite the deployment of the Gang Suppression Force to suppress criminal gangs, the situation following the violent attack in Kenscoff appears to have reached a point of no return once again. Haiti seems unable to find peace, while its civilian population continues to pay a devastatingly high daily price.

Mondo Internazionale APS - All Rights Reserved - 2026