At least 47 people and 22 others were injured Sunday night into Monday morning when gang members attacked a church providing shelter to displaced peoples right outside Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
The mayor of Kenscoff, Massillon Jean, said the deadly assault began around 10:30 p.m. and described it as a “night of terror.”
Jean blamed the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, one of the largest groups of violent gang members in Haiti.
According to an official statement, the Haitian government sent reinforcements to help local area police.
“Let there be no mistake: this time of mourning is also a challenge,” said the press release. “And to this challenge, the government responds with the force of law and the legitimate exercise of state force.”
It continued, “All security forces have been placed on maximum alert. Reinforcements are being deployed. The orders are clear: protect, secure, intervene. Government authority will be restored — firmly and without delay — throughout the entire territory of Kenscoff.”
The government added “no armed group will thrive in Haiti” and “[c]riminals will find no truce, no refuge, and no impunity.”
Haitian Bishop Joseph Gontrand Décoste of Jérémie told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that churches and Christians as a whole are increasingly the targets of gang violence because believers remain the last stalwart resistance against wrongdoing.
“We are the last remaining bulkhead — moral, ethical, spiritual, and prophetic,” he said. “That is why they want to eliminate us.”
For context, about 40 Catholic parishes have shut down in Port-au-Prince as Christians have faced increasingly deadly violence. In the first seven months of 2026, two priests were abducted and a seminarian was murdered. Last spring, two nuns from the Little Sisters of Saint Thérèse were killed and, in 2024, nine religious sisters, five brothers, and four priests were kidnapped.
ACN has reported gangs control somewhere between 70% and 90% of the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
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