By Riley Gonzalez —
Some 47 Haitians were killed and another 50 taken hostage from a displaced persons camp set up in a church in Kenscoff as part of a night of terror brought by a coalition of armed gang members who vying for power in the America’s poorest nation.
The killing rampage in the church does not appear to religiously motivated. Instead, the coalition Viv Ansamn appears only to be striking terror into the population in its battle against police in its bid for power. Viv Ansamn threatened to kill a hostage for every one of its fighters killed by police.
Haiti has descended into utter chaos since its dictator was overthrown in 1986. Politicians formed gangs to intimidate their rivals; then the gangs disposed of the politician and became their own force. In 2021, president Jovenel Moïse. In 2024, gangs launched a wave of violence that forced the unelected prime minister to resign.
Gangs control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince and have shot at commercial airlines, causing flights to be canceled. They extort businesses and transportation, setting up road checks to charge money to people who pass.
Kenscoff is the mountainous municipality southeast of the capitol where Viv Ansamn is battling for control. Its most prominent spokesman, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, portrays himself as a revolutionary fighting Haiti’s corrupt political and economic elites on behalf of poor Haitians.
But Viv Ansamn’s reality is one of massacres, kidnappings, extortion, sexual violence, territorial conquest and attacks on civilians.
More than 21,000 people have been killed since 2022, about 1.47 million Haitians are internally displaced, and 5.8 million are experiencing acute food insecurity.
Christians inside Haiti are leading the battle to help the crisis.
Churches have become makeshift refugee camps. One church compound in Port-au-Prince was sheltering roughly 6,000 displaced people in early 2026.
The Kenscoff church attacked this week was serving precisely this function — people displaced by earlier gang violence were living there when gunmen entered the compound.
Haitian Christian Mission says its local pastors are providing food and shelter to families fleeing gang-controlled areas. Haiti Outreach Mission similarly sends monthly funding through Haitian priests to provide food, shelter and necessities to people displaced after gangs overran Mirebalais in March 2025.
When gangs made Haiti Outreach Mission’s St. Pierre clinic unusable, Haitian medical personnel reorganized it as a mobile clinic; the mission was still financing equipment and operations as of June 2026. Samaritan’s Purse has likewise operated mobile medical clinics and distributed food and hygiene kits through local church partners.
Haiti Outreach Mission continues paying for children’s education and previously provided daily school meals, sometimes the child’s only meal of the day. Protestant churches historically operate a very substantial portion of Haiti’s schools — the State Department reported that Protestant leaders estimated 34% of Haitian students attended Protestant schools in 2022.
Christian relief organization World Vision reported reaching about 567,000 vulnerable Haitians, providing water, sanitation, food assistance, household supplies, cash transfers and economic assistance despite gang violence restricting access.
Sources: Daily Mail, AP, Reuters, others.
