Haiti gang members kill around 40 displaced people in church attack near capital

Gang members attacked displaced people huddling inside a church near Haiti's capital, killing around 40, some of them execution-style, the mayor told AFP on Monday.

"We have counted around 40 bodies. Searches are continuing. Some people are still missing" after the attack Sunday night in the town of Kenscoff in the hills above the capital, its mayor Massillon Jean said.

He described "a night of terror" in a town plagued for months by gang violence.

Jean said that among other places the assailants targeted a site housing people who had already fled violence.

"The bandits raided a displaced persons camp located in a church. They executed several people. There are fatalities and dozens of wounded. Some people were abducted by the criminals," Jean said.

In a statement issued after the attack, the office of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime expressed "deep compassion" for the bereaved families and all the victims.

The government also announced that reinforcements would be sent to restore security in the area.

Kenscoff, a mountainous municipality southeast of the Haitian capital, has for several months been the scene of clashes and incursions by armed groups seeking to expand their control.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has for years suffered from chronic political instability, natural disasters, corruption and violence from powerful gangs that carry out rampant killings, rapes, looting and kidnappings. The gangs control much of the capital city.

Nearly 1.5 million Haitians are currently displaced in a country of about 11 million, and more than five million are facing severe food insecurity, according to UN figures.

The crisis worsened in early 2024, when gangs launched a wave of violence that forced the unelected prime minister to resign.

Haiti has not held any kind of election since 2016. Its last president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in July 2021 and not replaced.

A general election is scheduled for December of this year.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)