Haiti’s national police has faced growing scrutiny over its failure to stem violent attacks by armed criminal groups, which killed 47 people and kidnapped more than 50 last weekend. Police spokesperson Garry Desrosiers held a news conference on Thursday, taking questions from a handful of reporters. He offered few details about how the police plan to respond to the August 23 mass kidnapping, considered one of the largest such incidents in the country’s recent history.
The attack on the community of Kenscoff, located in the hills outside of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, has underscored the continued influence of powerful gangs in the country. Hundreds of people fled the attack. Desrosiers said that police are working to return them home.
One gang leader has threatened to execute all the hostages if any gang members are killed as police work to gain control over Kenscoff. Asked whether police had gathered any intelligence before the attack, Desrosiers offered sparse comments, saying authorities have been working to find information. He added that the police believe one gang leader has threatened an assault on Tabarre, a neighbourhood in the capital that is home to the United States embassy.
The attack on Kenscoff comes as authorities in Haiti seek to reclaim control of the capital city. The United Nations estimates that the community has suffered about a dozen gang attacks since last year. But violence had been dropping in the area.
Between January and August, the nonprofit conflict monitor Armed Conflict Location and Event Data found that the crackdown had lowered violence in Kenscoff by 66 percent compared with a year ago. Still, the UN has warned that gang-related violence is “spreading geographically even as the authorities’ anti-gang campaign intensifies in Port-au-Prince”. The international body has estimated that more than 3,050 people have been killed across the country between January and June alone.
Armed groups have acquired growing influence in Haiti since the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise in 2021, which left a power vacuum in the country’s government. No national elections have been held in the years since, and the last elected senators saw their terms expire in 2023. Haitian officials have repeatedly attempted to schedule a new vote, only to postpone the elections due to security concerns and other factors.
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