Armed gang members stormed a Protestant church compound being used as a shelter for displaced families in the hillside town of Kenscoff, southeast of Haiti’s capital, killing at least 47 people and kidnapping more than 50 others, according to United Nations and local officials.
The overnight assault from August 23 to 24 turned the once quiet community overlooking Port-au-Prince into what the town’s mayor described as a night of terror.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that 22 of those killed were reportedly executed inside the church compound where they had sought safety after fleeing earlier violence.
The UN Integrated Office in Haiti, known as BINUH, said the attack left at least 47 dead, including at least five children, with more than 22 others injured.
Authorities and rights groups have described the killings as execution-style attacks on people who believed they had found refuge.
Kenscoff mayor Massillon Jean said the assault began around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday and continued into Monday morning, with heavily armed men from the Viv Ansanm gang coalition attacking homes and the church compound.
Jean told international media that officials initially counted about 40 bodies, but that the number could rise as search teams moved through burned-out houses and fields.
He later told the Miami Herald that a justice of the peace had formally confirmed 25 dead while at least 15 people remained missing, underscoring the difficulty of establishing a precise death toll in the chaotic aftermath.
Haiti’s National Network for the Defense of Human Rights, RNDDH, estimated that between 30 and 40 people were killed and 15 to 20 wounded, warning that the final figures could be higher as more bodies are found.
A report cited by Christian and Orthodox news outlets, drawing on the French daily Le Monde, described the site as a Protestant church that had opened its doors to internally displaced people fleeing gang violence in the capital.
Christian outlets including CBN News and The Christian Post have reported that the victims were largely Christian families sheltering at the church after being driven from their homes in Port-au-Prince.
Residents told reporters that the church had become an informal camp for families who had fled other neighborhoods in and around Port-au-Prince and were now living in makeshift conditions in Kenscoff.
The attack shattered that sense of safety and highlighted how armed coalitions like Viv Ansanm have expanded their reach from urban strongholds into mountain communities once seen as havens from the violence.
The massacre comes amid a broader security collapse in Haiti, where gangs control large parts of the capital and where churches have increasingly found themselves on the front lines of the violence.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the Kenscoff killings, calling them a heinous attack and warning that the relentless gang assaults on communities underscore Haiti’s alarming security situation.
His spokesperson said the UN chief urged Haitian authorities to investigate the massacre, bring perpetrators to justice and accelerate efforts with international partners to reinforce security for civilians.
The UN office in Haiti also renewed its call for the rapid deployment of the international security support mission approved by the Security Council to help Haitian police confront powerful gangs.
Following the attack, Haitian police officials promised additional reinforcements for Kenscoff and neighboring areas, after local residents complained that security forces arrived only after the gunmen had left.
Human rights advocates have urged authorities to prioritize protection of displacement sites and churches, warning that the lack of a rapid response in Kenscoff risks emboldening gangs to carry out similar assaults elsewhere.
Christian media such as CBN News, Evangelical Focus and the Vatican-affiliated Fides news agency have framed the massacre as a new blow to Haiti’s already traumatized Christian communities and urged greater international attention to their plight.