By admin 
For years the hillside community of Kenscoff was a refuge from Port-au-Prince, a place where Haitian farmers peacefully grew fruits and vegetables that helped feed the nation and where the well-heeled built summer homes to escape the capital and enjoy the cool microclimate.
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Now it has become another killing ground for Haiti’s terrorizing armed gangs as they continue to extend their reach.
On Sunday night, members of the powerful Viv Ansanm coalition stormed the town’s center and went on a killing spree, attacking a church filled with people already fleeing gang violence, killing residents and torching vehicles and homes, including one belonging to the Caribbean’s preeminent epidemiologist and AIDS researcher, Dr. Jean William “Bill” Pape, the Miami Herald has confirmed.
Pape, who was recently recognized by the International AIDS Society with the President’s Award for his pioneering contributions to HIV prevention in Haiti, was out of the country at the time of the attack.
Videos shared on social media captured part of the carnage: bludgeoned bodies lying in pools of blood along a concrete path as the loud wails of residents rang out in the background. Many of the victims were young, and many were farmers who had lived in what was once considered one of the most serene and safest areas of the region, which includes metropolitan Port-au-Prince.
“It was a night of terror,” Mayor Massillon Jean said.
The second major incursion in Kenscoff by armed gangs since early July, when scores of area residents were massacred over several days, the latest attack marked an ominous turning point in gangs’ campaign to seize control of nearby affluent Pétion-Ville, one of the last areas in Haiti’s largest regional department, the West, not under complete gang control.
Since setting their sights on Kenscoff with their first assault on Jan. 27, 2025, members of Viv Ansanm have tried to reach its geographic center. On Sunday, they finally did so with an attack that unfolded in several regions of the commune — an administrative district similar to a county — including near the mayor’s office and a police substation. As of Monday the number of dead, wounded and kidnapped remained unknown.
The timing of the assault, between 9 p.m. Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday, made assessing the immediate toll difficult, Jean told Port-au-Prince based Magik 9.
“They entered many homes and killed people; they also sequestered and kidnapped many others,” Jean said. “A lot of people called us and said they had relatives who were killed. Some people said they saw more than 40 dead along the route, but we can’t confirm that yet.”
Among the missing was the mayor’s cousin, who works on his security staff. “We’re looking for him, trying to retrace his steps. We tried calling him, but couldn’t find him,” Jean said. “We don’t know if he’s been kidnapped or killed.”
Jean called on Haitian authorities to take the necessary steps to stop the bloodshed and dismantle the armed groups.
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“The situation is really chaotic,” he said.
Battle for territory
Jean told the Herald that he had spent 20 months warning that Kenscoff was in danger and appealing for help in dismantling the gangs. Haitian police responded to the attack and pushed back gang members, he said, but the problem comes after they leave.
“They need to do consolidation. That’s what is missing,” said Jean.
Kenscoff’s geographic location means that control over it would give Viv Ansanm another access route into Petion-Ville, where major hotels are located, and where the transitional government has been making controversial real estate purchases to relocate ministries from the downtown area.
Amid the unfolding attacks, another leader in the deadly alliance, Lanmò Sanjou, is threatening to have his 400 Mawozo gang take over Tabarre, where the U.S. embassy is located.
Meanwhile, the public continues to feel the repercussions of the violence, which has displaced nearly 1.5 million people and has more than half of the population struggling to find enough to eat. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which was established by the now disbanded U.S. Agency for International Development, recently noted that the gang conflict continues to limit access to food for Haitians.
The violence in Kenscoff was particularly jarring, the network noted, because it serves as the main horticultural production area for the capital.
“These disruptions are reducing market supplies in Port-au-Prince, particularly in Pétion-Ville and Delmas, while decreasing agricultural household incomes and increasing pressure on host households are contributing to persistently constrained food access among the poorest households,” the network said.
The attack in Kenscoff has also raised questions about what Haiti’s police and the international Gang Suppression Force are doing. The gang-fighting force, authorized by the United Nations and backed by the Trump administration, had not yet been deployed into the area, Jean said.
Gang expansion into the area goes back a year. The U.N. noted in April of 2025 that rural areas of Kenscoff and some neighborhoods of Carrefour had been experiencing repeated gang attacks between January and March resulted in at least 262 deaths and 66 injuries.
Since then, the assaults have been so frequent that even the mayor has lost counts. “They are a lot,” Jean said.
The latest attack occurred just weeks after another assault by gangs in early July that left 105 people dead. The U.N. said the attacks between July 4-9 forced 5,840 people to flee their homes.
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