In Haiti, gangs release 13 people kidnapped in Kenscoff
In Haiti, 13 people — six children and seven women — who were kidnapped last week during an attack by armed gangs on the mountainous community of Kenscoff have been released. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported this, Al Jazeera English reports.
UNICEF Deputy Representative in Haiti Yannig Dussart called the release a rare moment of hope amid violence threatening children in the country. According to him, the kidnappings in Kenscoff were not an isolated incident and demonstrate the scale and frequency of attacks on children.
Attack on Kenscoff
On the night of August 23, according to a UN estimate, about 150 armed gang members attacked Kenscoff, located on the slopes above the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the suburb of Pétion-Ville. The attackers shot at residents in the streets and chased some people to a Protestant church.
Those who took shelter in the church were forced outside. Some tried to escape. According to the UN, 22 people were killed in the church courtyard and about 12 more behind the building. In total, at least 47 people were killed during the attack, and more than 50 people were kidnapped. About 2,647 residents fled their homes and moved to neighboring communities, while some houses were set on fire.
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Call to release the other kidnapped people
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Haiti, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, called for the immediate and unconditional release of all kidnapped people, including women and children. He said the attack was another in a series of attacks on Kenscoff since the beginning of 2025 and demonstrates the gangs' ability to terrorize the population and expand their influence beyond the capital.
Following the mass kidnapping, some gang members reportedly threatened on social media to execute some of the kidnapped people if security force operations against their groups continued. Haiti's government promised to send additional forces to the Kenscoff area. The prime minister's office said all security forces had been placed on maximum alert.
According to the UN, as of May, violence in Haiti had forced about 1.47 million people to flee their homes. From April to June, gang violence killed 1,408 people and injured another 656.
