Haiti mass kidnapping near Port-au-Prince kills 47, raises election fears

Portauprince,UPDATED: Aug 25, 2026 22:48 IST

At least 47 people were killed and more than 50 others were kidnapped after armed men attacked Kenscoff, a community near Haiti's capital, earlier this week, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The assault on Sunday is believed to be one of the largest mass kidnappings in Haiti in recent years and has shaken the belief that security in the country was improving.

The attack has also triggered fresh warnings of a wider security challenge for Haiti as it prepares for general elections on December 13, the first in more than a decade. One gang leader has threatened to kill the hostages if authorities kill any gang members while trying to secure the community in the hills above Port-au-Prince.

Romain Le Cour, head of 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 alike." He said the threat to execute hostages is a trap: if the forces do not act, they will have failed to protect them, and if they do act and hostages die, gangs will blame the state.

In a video posted on social media, the gang leader threatened Vladimir Paraison, director of Haiti's Police, and warned him against using drones to push back gangs in the area. "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 only as Izo 2, a reference to Izo, or Johnson Andre, one of Haiti's most powerful gang members. 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. "He's running a kind of franchise cell for other gangs," Le Cour said.

Le Cour said one possible aim of the attack was to force Haiti's police and the UN-backed gang suppression force to spread their already limited resources even further. "They don't have enough personnel," he said. "If you force them to deploy more troops, it would inevitably be at the expense of other areas." He said the attack could also be a show of force ahead of the elections. "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."

The first major attack on Kenscoff took place in January 2025, and there have been sporadic attacks in the mountains around the city centre since then. But Sunday's attack was the biggest so far. The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, or BINUH, said at least five of the 47 people killed were children. Kenscoff Mayor Jean Massillon told The Associated Press on Tuesday that two government employees were among those killed, including his cousin, who was part of his security detail. He said members of Viv Ansanm, a powerful gang coalition that the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organisation, also set fire to 25 homes.

Information about the attack is still emerging, with Massillon warning that gangs were still moving around the edges of Kenscoff. "The atrocity of this crime reminds us that we have to continue working stronger every day to bring peace to the community," he said. "I'm optimistic that the state will continue working to eradicate the gangs in Kenscoff." Some survivors accused the government of not providing enough protection before the attack, an accusation rejected by Haiti's Police. Le Cour said that if police and armoured vehicles were indeed stationed in Kenscoff before the attack, the claim would be troubling: "You let the gangs come in even if you had everything in place?"

Armed men control an estimated 70 per cent of Port-au-Prince and large areas of Haiti's central region and beyond. UN statistics released on Tuesday said gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, with more than 3,050 people reported killed between January and June and another 1,400 injured. The UN also said nearly 800 rapes were reported from April to June, and 87 per cent of those cases were collective rapes. At least 81 people were reported kidnapped during the same period, according to a new UN report. "These figures represent only a portion of the total number of people kidnapped," it said. "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 was more than 40 per cent higher than in the previous quarter, underlining the scale of the crisis as Haiti deals with the fallout of the Kenscoff attack.

With PTI Inputs

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