At least 47 people were killed and more than 50 kidnapped when armed men stormed the hilltop town of Kenscoff, south of Port-au-Prince, in one of Haiti’s deadliest gang attacks this year, the United Nations confirmed on Monday.
The assault began around 22:30 local time on Sunday, August 24, when gunmen from the Viv Ansanm coalition descended on the farming community in the hills overlooking Haiti’s capital. They shot residents, set homes ablaze and forced hundreds to flee into the surrounding mountains. By Monday morning, bodies lay in the streets and survivors were still searching for missing relatives.
“The toll is truly heavy – these bandits have killed many people, burnt many cars, burnt many houses and forced many citizens to flee their homes,” said Kenscoff mayor Jean Massillon, whose own cousin serving as his security detail was among the dead. Two government employees were confirmed killed in the attack.
UN Calls It One of the Deadliest Single Episodes This Year
The United Nations Office in Haiti (BINUH) put the death toll at 47 and said more than 50 people were abducted, making it one of the single deadliest episodes in the country’s ongoing security crisis. The Haitian human rights organization RNDDH had earlier estimated between 30 and 40 killed and 15 to 20 wounded, cautioning that the full picture remained difficult to establish as communications in the area were disrupted.
Kenscoff, a municipality of roughly 65,000 residents, occupies a strategic agricultural position in the region. Its farmers tend livestock and grow crops that supply a significant portion of Port-au-Prince’s food. The repeated targeting of the town has raised alarm about food security for the capital, where gangs already control an estimated 85 to 90 percent of territory.
Pattern of Escalating Violence
The attack was not an isolated incident. Kenscoff has been subjected to escalating gang assaults since early 2024, when armed groups first pushed into the area. In early 2025, the UN estimated that 262 people were killed there in a wave of attacks. Between July 4 and 9 this year, at least 61 people – including 14 children – were killed in Kenscoff and the neighboring commune of Petion-Ville, according to the UN.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the July attacks caused nearly 6,000 people to flee Kenscoff in five days, the largest displacement the town had experienced in 15 months. Massillon blamed the latest violence on gangs from Carrefour, a commune near Kenscoff entirely under the control of Viv Ansanm, the powerful armed coalition led by one of Haiti’s most feared gang leaders.
The mayor called for permanent police reinforcements to secure the area. “After security forces drive the bandits away, they don’t stay. This makes it easier for the criminals to come back and attack us,” he told local media. “We need security forces to remain and consolidate their presence on the ground, not just show up after the next attack.”
Humanitarian Crisis Deepens Ahead of Planned Elections
The attack comes as Haiti faces a cascading humanitarian crisis. An estimated 6.4 million people – more than half the country’s population – now require humanitarian assistance, and a record 1.5 million Haitians have been displaced by gang-related violence, according to the UN. Widespread hunger, particularly in and around Port-au-Prince, has been exacerbated by the gang blockade of key supply routes.
Haiti’s security situation has deteriorated sharply since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021. A Kenyan-led international police mission deployed in 2024 has struggled to contain the violence, and the Haitian National Police remains severely under-resourced and outnumbered.
The bloodshed in Kenscoff also casts doubt on the government’s plan to hold general elections in December, which the international community has been urging as a path toward restoring democratic governance. With armed groups maintaining dominance over most of the capital and extending their reach into surrounding communities, security analysts say the conditions for free and fair voting remain distant.
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