At least 47 people have been killed and more than 50 others kidnapped after armed gangs attacked Kenscoff, a community in the hills above Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Sunday, August 23. The attack, described as one of the largest mass kidnappings in Haiti in recent years, has shattered the belief that security in the country was improving.
Gang leader threatens to kill hostages
In a video posted on social media, a 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. Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 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.
Residents describe the attack
Kenscoff resident Marc Paul, 42, said gangs kidnapped his brother, stepmother, stepfather, and two cousins. His 16-year-old niece was also kidnapped and raped but was able to escape and reunite with him. “I had to run over bodies,” he said, recalling how he fled the attack. “I can’t sleep knowing all these people died.”
Paul and his family had already lost their home to a previous gang attack in January 2025, but he said it was not as violent as Sunday’s attack. Paul was upset about the video the gangs posted: “My brother is probably going to die.”
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.”
Political and security implications
Le Cour called the attack “a major political and security test, for the government, for the police and for the international mission.” He said the threat of executing hostages is a trap: If forces don’t act, they’ve failed to protect them; if they do and hostages die, the gangs will blame the state.
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. If you force them to deploy more troops, it would inevitably be at the expense of other areas,” he said.
The attack might also be a show of force and a message to Haiti’s government and police as the country prepares to hold general elections on December 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 added. “The gangs are saying: when we choose to attack, we can, and we will succeed.”
Casualties and response
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, August 25, 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.”
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 two-thirds 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.
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?”
Haiti’s National Police issued a statement Tuesday saying Paraison ordered an investigation to establish the truth about the attack “whether due to complicity or negligence.” He also ordered additional specialized units to the area, saying “It is an obligation to protect the civilian population.”
Wider context of gang violence
Armed men control an estimated 70 percent of Port-au-Prince and swathes of land in Haiti’s central region and beyond. Gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,000 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 percent 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 percent increase compared with the previous quarter.
