In the latest violent escalation in Haiti’s spiraling security crisis, two police officers were killed Tuesday night by heavily armed gang members in the once-peaceful mountain town of Kenscoff, just outside the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The slain officers were part of a newly formed specialized patrol unit tasked with pushing back against gang advances in the region. Gangs, which now control 90% of Port-au-Prince, have been attempting to expand their territory into surrounding areas like Kenscoff—a historically quiet farming community.
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According to Lionel Lazarre, deputy spokesperson for Haiti’s National Police, the officers were traveling in an armored vehicle when it became trapped in a ditch reportedly dug by gang members to sabotage security forces. As the officers tried to escape on foot, they were ambushed and fatally shot.
Graphic videos of the attack and its aftermath quickly circulated on social media, showing gang members boasting over the seized police equipment—including automatic weapons, boots, bulletproof vests, and uniforms. Disturbing footage of the slain officers was also shared by the perpetrators, further shocking a nation already reeling from relentless violence.
This ambush follows another deadly incident less than a month ago, in which three police officers and an informant were killed in Haiti’s central region. A fourth officer remains missing from that attack.
A recent UN report paints a grim picture: between April and June 2025, over 1,500 people were killed and 600 injured, with nearly a quarter of the casualties directly attributed to gang violence.
Efforts to restore order have been slow and under-resourced. Haitian police are working in coordination with Kenyan forces, leading a UN-backed multinational mission meant to stabilize the country. However, the mission has fallen short of its target deployment of 2,500 personnel, with fewer than 1,000 boots currently on the ground, according to Ulrika Richardson, the outgoing UN humanitarian coordinator for Haiti.
Speaking at UN headquarters in New York earlier this week, Richardson described the situation as “alarming and urgent”, especially in Port-au-Prince where two-thirds of hospitals are no longer functioning. She warned that 1.3 million Haitians have been displaced by gang warfare, while two million face emergency levels of food insecurity.
“This is not just a Haitian crisis—it is a regional one,” she said, noting that gangs have evolved into organized criminal networks involved in drug, arms, and human trafficking across borders.
Richardson also highlighted a critical lack of funding and political will, revealing that the $900 million UN humanitarian response plan for Haiti is only 9% funded—the lowest rate of any global emergency response effort.
As gang violence expands beyond Port-au-Prince and into rural communities like Kenscoff, the Haitian government and international community face mounting pressure to act decisively before the crisis spirals even further out of control.
