A gang coalition that controls roughly 70% of Port-au-Prince stormed a hillside farming community south of the Haitian capital late Sunday, killing at least 47 people — including at least five children — and kidnapping more than 50 others in what United Nations officials are calling one of the largest mass abductions in the country's recent history.

The assault hit Kenscoff, a once-quiet mountain community that has increasingly become a battleground as gangs push beyond their traditional strongholds in the capital. According to accounts relayed by the Washington Post, at least 22 of the dead were executed inside a church compound where displaced residents had been sheltering. Attackers also torched at least 25 homes and killed two government employees, including a cousin of Kenscoff's mayor, Jean Massillon.

A Coalition Flexes Its Muscle

Haitian officials attribute the attack to a faction operating under the command of gang leader Johnson André, known widely as "Izo," whose coalition has effectively seized control of most of the capital since the collapse of formal policing in large stretches of the city. A lieutenant identified as "Izo 2," or "Didi," is believed to have led Sunday's raid. In a video posted after the attack, the gang leader threatened Haiti's national police chief directly over any retaliation against his fighters.

"PARAISON, IF ANY OF OUR SOLDIERS ARE HURT, I WILL KILL ALL OF THEM."

The threat was aimed at National Police Director Vladimir Paraison, who has ordered an investigation into whether police "complicity or negligence" allowed the attack to unfold, according to wire reporting carried by KSAT. Paraison has since ordered specialized units into the area and pledged additional protection for civilians, though residents and rights groups say similar promises have followed previous attacks with little lasting change.

This is not the first time Kenscoff has been targeted — a smaller assault on the community in January 2025 foreshadowed Sunday's far deadlier raid, according to Al Jazeera's early reporting on the unfolding death toll, which climbed through the day as more bodies were recovered.

The attack lands amid a broader unraveling of state authority in Haiti, where a patchwork of armed groups has expanded well beyond Port-au-Prince over the past two years, straining an under-resourced national police force. Aid groups have repeatedly warned that displacement camps and hillside communities like Kenscoff — caught between rival territories — are especially vulnerable to exactly this kind of raid.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack Tuesday, saying it "underscores the alarming security conditions in Haiti," where gang violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and left much of the capital beyond government control.

What's Next

The fate of the more than 50 people abducted remains unknown, and negotiations — if any are underway — have not been made public. Haitian and international officials have offered no timetable for a rescue or recovery effort, and previous mass-kidnapping cases in Haiti have sometimes dragged on for weeks or months before hostages are released, often after ransom is paid. For now, families in Kenscoff are burying their dead and waiting for word on the missing.