PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — At least 47 people were killed and more than 50 others kidnapped when armed men attacked a once-peaceful community near Haiti's capital earlier this week, the United Nations said Tuesday. It is believed to be one of the largest mass kidnappings in Haiti in recent years, and one gang leader is threatening to kill the hostages if authorities kill any gang members as they try to secure the community nestled in the hills above Port-au-Prince. Sunday's attack on Kenscoff pierced the belief that security in the troubled Caribbean country was improving.
"This is a major political and security test, for the government, for the police and for the international mission," said Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. He said the threat of executing hostages is a trap: If forces don't act, they've failed to protect them; if they do and hostages die, the gangs will blame the state. Kenscoff resident Marc Paul, 42, said gangs kidnapped his brother, stepmother, stepfather and two cousins.
He said his 16-year-old niece also was kidnapped and raped but was able to escape and has reunited with him. "I had to run over bodies," he said as he recalled how he fled the attack. "I can't sleep knowing all these people died." Paul and his family had already lost their home to a previous gang attack in January 2025, but he said it was not as violent as Sunday's attack.
Paul was upset about the video the gangs posted: "My brother is probably going to die." In a video posted on social media, the gang leader threatened Vladimir Paraison, director of Haiti's National Police. "Paraison, if any of our soldiers are hurt, I will kill all of them," he said, referring to the hostages. The gang member identified himself as Izo 2, a reference to Izo, or Johnson André, one of Haiti's most powerful gang leaders.
Le Cour said Izo 2 is also known as "Didi" and leads the armed group in Kenscoff on behalf of and in coordination with Izo and other gang leaders. Kenson Paul, the 17-year-old nephew of Marc Paul, said he managed to escape the attackers. "They have not called us to let us know what they want," he said of the gang.
"I worry for my family's life." Le Cour said the aim of Sunday's attack could be to force Haiti's police and the U.N.-backed gang suppression force to disperse even more of their limited resources. "They don't have enough personnel," Le Cour said in a phone interview. "If you force them to deploy more troops, it would inevitably be at the expense of other areas." The attack might also just be a show of force and a message to Haiti's government and police as the country prepares to hold general elections on Dec. 13 for the first time in more than a decade.
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