At least 47 people were killed and more than 50 others kidnapped when armed men attacked a community once considered peaceful near Haiti's capital earlier this week, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The attack hit the communities living on the hills of Kenscoff, in Port-au-Prince, on Sunday, piercing the belief that security in the troubled Caribbean country was improving.
Mass kidnapping in Kenscoff
This is believed to be one of the largest mass kidnappings in Haiti in recent years. One gang leader is threatening to kill the hostages if authorities kill any gang members as they try to secure the community nestled in the hills above Port-au-Prince.
The UN website said: "the killings in Kenscoff began late Sunday, when armed men descended on the farming community in the hills overlooking Haiti’s capital, setting homes ablaze and attacking residents".
Gangs control vast areas
Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, said: "This is a major political and security test for the government, for the police and for the international mission."
This came after Haitian gangs took control of several neighbourhoods. One of these gangs, called Viv Ansanm, is a powerful federation estimated to control 70% of Port-au-Prince. The U.S. government designated it as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Rising death toll and displacement
After the unrest started last year, the U.N. revealed that 2,300 people have been killed across Haiti so far this year, with another 100 kidnapped, while 1.5 million have been displaced. Among those abducted is James Boyard, cabinet director of the Defense Ministry, who was kidnapped last week in one of the few relatively safe areas of the capital.
There are more than 300,000 people displaced by gang violence across Port-au-Prince. Since last year, "powerful gangs now control vast swathes of territory and infrastructure in the country," the UN also said.
"Gangs once operated as fragmented, neighbourhood vigilantes who committed sporadic violent acts, much like gangs in other countries," the UN also wrote on its website. "Now, however, gangs have formed larger criminal coalitions that control a considerable part of the country, including an estimated 80-90 per cent of Port au Prince, Haiti’s capital, in addition to key areas in the Artibonite and Central Departments," it added.
