Kenscoff massacre: Death toll rises to 40 as gang leader threatens hostages

The death toll from the gang attack on Kenscoff, last sunday, has climbed past 40 and could rise further, as search efforts continue in areas authorities have struggled to reach. Armed men stormed the community, August 23, opening fire on residents and setting homes ablaze in what Mayor Massillon Jean described as “a night of terror.”

Jean told AFP that around forty bodies had been counted as of Monday, and later reports citing United Nations sources put it at 47 dead and 22 wounded. The mayor cautioned that a definitive toll remains impossible to establish because of access difficulties and disrupted communications in parts of the commune. Some residents remain missing, and dozens more were reported wounded.

According to the mayor, gang members raided a displacement camp housed inside a church, executing several people, and also went house to house in what one resident described as indiscriminate shooting. Massillon attributed the attack to the Viv Ansanm gang coalition. Homes were burned. Kidnappings were also reported during the raid.

In the attack’s aftermath, the gang leader identified as Izo 2, whose men are accused of carrying out the Kenscoff massacre, shared a three-minute video showing roughly twenty hostages, men, women and three children, being held captive. In the video, he claimed to be holding additional hostages beyond those shown and threatened to kill them if security forces moved against his men. “If one of my dogs or a soldier is killed, these people will be killed,” he said.

Kenscoff, once considered largely insulated from the gang violence gripping most of Port-au-Prince, has faced repeated assaults over the past nineteen months. An offensive in late January 2025 in the nearby localities of Belot and Godet killed at least 50 people and displaced roughly 3,000 residents, and gangs struck the Kenscoff locality of Robin again in early July 2026.

The United Nations has reported more than 3,100 people killed across Haiti in gang-related violence during the first six months of this year alone.

The office of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé expressed “profound compassion” for the victims and their families in a statement, and the government announced it was sending reinforcements to restore security in the area.