At least 30 people were killed in an overnight gang attack on Kenscoff, a hillside farming community above Haiti's capital, Kenscoff Mayor Jean Massillon confirmed Monday.
Armed men set fire to homes and shot residents during the incursion. A church was targeted. Homes belonging to Dr. Jean "Bill" Pape, a physician who runs an NGO treating HIV and tuberculosis patients, were struck. Pape was not reported among the casualties. The attack adds to a documented pattern of gang expansion beyond Port-au-Prince, including the Gran Grif massacre in Artibonite and clashes near the capital that killed 78 in May.
Death toll fluid, response gap confirmed
Massillon attributed the attack to Viv Ansanm, the gang coalition designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government. "They sowed chaos," Massillon told AP. He said it remains "impossible to establish a definitive death toll due to access difficulties and communication problems."
Farmer Mathurin Pierre, 41, told AP he lost 14 relatives, with an unspecified number still unaccounted for. Survivors found bodies in the streets at dawn Monday. Dozens of houses were burned. A spokesperson for the UN-backed gang suppression force did not immediately return AP's request for comment.
Observers are reading: How Kenscoff fits into Viv Ansanm's broader rural expansion strategy and what it means for December's vote.
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Confirmed toll expected to rise
The attack comes two days after the first U.S. deportation flight under the terminated Temporary Protected Status program landed in Cap-Haïtien on August 22, carrying 161 deportees. That flight avoided Port-au-Prince because the capital's international airport has been deemed too dangerous. More than 3,100 people were killed nationwide between January and June 2026, with 1.5 million people displaced, according to figures tracking the crisis. Massillon's office has not issued a revised casualty figure since Monday's initial report.
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