Armed gangs in Haiti control nearly all of Port-au-Prince and are expanding their reach outward. Once a peaceful farming community on the outskirts of the capital, the town of Kenscoff has found itself attacked again in recent days – violence that risks worsening food insecurity that the UN warns is already acute.
Issued on: 18/07/2026 - 07:29
3 min Reading time
Twenty kilometres south of Port-au-Prince in the foothills of a mountain range, Kenscoff has been subjected to sporadic assaults since January 2025. This month, the gangs attacked again. Between 4-9 July, at least 61 people – including 14 children – were killed in Kenscoff and the neighbouring commune of Pétion-Ville, according to the United Nations. “The toll is truly heavy – these bandits have killed many people, burnt many cars, burnt many houses and forced many citizens to flee their homes,” the mayor of Kenscoff, Jean Massillon, told RFI’s correspondent Peterson Luxama. “To this day, there are fathers who cannot stop crying because they have lost their sons, their daughters, their spouses.” With around 65,000 inhabitants, Kenscoff occupies a strategic position in a region largely devoted to agriculture. Its farmers tend livestock and grow crops that form an important part of the capital’s food supply.
