At least 42 people have been killed by the criminal group Viv Ansanm during the night from Sunday to Monday in the municipality of Kenscoff, located east of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, in a new episode of the escalation of violence led by gangs in the Caribbean country, according to the most recent toll.
A journalist from the portal Gazette Haiti has claimed to have counted 43 corpses in the streets of Kenscoff after the attackers tried to take control of the town center, set houses on fire, and kidnapped several people.
On Monday morning, the riddled bodies were still lying in the public road while the security forces remained deployed after managing to repel the offensive.
The mayor of the municipality, Jean Masillon, has described what happened as a true "massacre." Furthermore, in statements to the agency AlterPresse, he indicated that local authorities are "carrying out the judicial report with justice to remove the corpses."
The security situation in Haiti continues to be disastrous five years after the assassination of former president Jovenel Moise in 2021.
According to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), in the first quarter of the year (January-March 2026) violence has caused at least 1,642 deaths and 745 injuries, in a context of massacres like the one recorded between March 29 and 31 in 16 localities of Lower Artibonite, where 83 people were killed in just 72 hours.