Haiti Buries Kenscoff Dead as Dozens Remain Hostage, Police Probe Own Failure

Hundreds of mourners gathered in Kenscoff on Wednesday for a collective funeral service honoring more than 20 of the 47 people killed in the Aug. 23 gang massacre — the largest public gathering of grief the farming community above Port-au-Prince has held since armed members of the Viv Ansanm coalition carried out the attack ten days ago. During the service, at least one man collapsed and had to be assisted. Several mourners declined to speak with reporters afterward. Members of the crowd attacked two journalists following the service, including an AP photographer who required medical care.

The burned shell of a vehicle torched during the attack remains near the church. It has not been removed.

Haiti's National Police has opened a formal investigation into whether the failure to prevent the massacre involved complicity or negligence among officers assigned to the area. The probe follows conflicting accounts: police initially stated that officers had been deployed in and around Kenscoff before the attack. If accurate, the UN Haiti Observatory noted, the death toll raises pointed questions. "If police and armored vehicles were indeed stationed in Kenscoff prior to the attack, then the assertion is concerning," said Romain Le Cour, head of the observatory. No officers have been suspended or charged.

The attack on the night of Aug. 23 was confirmed by the United Nations Human Rights Office to have involved approximately 150 heavily armed Viv Ansanm members. Attackers killed 13 people attempting to flee, then pursued survivors into a church, where 22 were executed in the courtyard and 12 more behind the building. At least 47 people died in total. More than 50 were abducted. Twenty-five homes and vehicles were burned. A gang leader subsequently posted video footage of nearly 20 hostages, warning that additional police deployments into Kenscoff would result in their execution.

Since then, six children and seven women — 13 people in total — have been released following an intervention by community leaders and UNICEF. Dozens remain in captivity. No further communications from the gang about the remaining hostages have been made public, and no ransom figure has been disclosed.

The United Nations Security Council received a formal briefing on the Kenscoff massacre last week. Haiti's representative described the attack as evidence of Viv Ansanm's "new capacity for violence and terror." The UN's Integrated Office in Haiti had documented 1,408 people killed and 656 injured between April and June 2026 alone — before Kenscoff. Nearly 1.5 million of Haiti's 11 million people are internally displaced, according to UN estimates. Children recruited and used by armed groups rose by 200 percent in 2025, according to UNICEF. More than 2.6 million children require humanitarian assistance.

Kenscoff had registered a 66 percent reduction in violence between January and August of this year, the product of sustained security operations the Haitian government had cited as evidence of progress. The Aug. 23 attack reversed that trajectory in a single night. The community had functioned as a destination for residents displaced from Port-au-Prince's lower neighborhoods, where Viv Ansanm had already established control. The expansion into Kenscoff — situated in the mountains above the capital — marks what security analysts describe as a new phase in the coalition's territorial strategy, targeting areas previously outside its operational geography.

The Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission, authorized by the United Nations and deployed in 2024, has made documented gains in reclaiming parts of Port-au-Prince. It has not deterred operations of the kind that struck Kenscoff, and questions about its capacity to extend coverage across Haiti's broader territory remain unanswered at its current force level and funding.

Pope Leo XIV condemned the massacre on Sunday. "I express my prayerful closeness to the victims and their families and ask that all the hostages be released without delay," he said. "I make a heartfelt appeal to all those responsible to make a concrete commitment to ensuring the safety of the population and putting an end to every form of violence."

Haiti is scheduled to hold its first general election in more than a decade on December 13. The electoral council has conditioned the date on the establishment of an acceptable security environment. The Kenscoff massacre is the most significant challenge yet to that condition. More than 3,050 people were reported killed across Haiti in the first half of 2026, according to UN figures, before the Kenscoff attack added to that total.

Marc Paul, 42, lost his brother, stepmother, stepfather and two cousins in the attack. His 16-year-old niece was abducted, assaulted, and later managed to escape. His family had been displaced once before, by a gang attack in January 2025. He had relocated to Kenscoff believing it was safer. "I had to run over bodies," he said. "I can't sleep knowing all these people died." Looking at video footage posted by the attackers, he said of his brother: "He's probably going to die."

Originally published on HNGN