Around 40 people were killed in an attack by armed gangs in the town of Kinscouf, east of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, the mayor told AFP.
Mayor Massilon Jean said that armed gang members attacked displaced people who were gathered inside a church in the hilly town southeast of the capital, killing about 40 people, including some who were executed by gunfire.
The mayor explained that search operations are still ongoing to find the missing, noting that the attackers targeted a site sheltering displaced people who had fled violence in other areas, where they stormed a church being used as a camp for the displaced, executed several people, kidnapped others, and injured dozens, in a scene that reflects the increasing brutality of gangs in Haiti.
In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Alex Didier Villas-Aimé expressed its deep sympathy to the families of the victims and announced the deployment of security reinforcements to restore order in the region, which has seen frequent clashes between armed groups seeking to expand their control. This comes at a time when Haiti is suffering from a severe humanitarian and political crisis, with gangs controlling most of the capital, some 1.5 million displaced people living there, and more than five million suffering from food insecurity, according to the United Nations.
This tragedy comes amid an ongoing political crisis, as Haiti has not held elections since 2016, its last president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021, and the situation worsened in early 2024 with a wave of violence that led to the resignation of the prime minister, with general elections scheduled for next December in an attempt to end the political deadlock.
