PORT-AU-PRINCE – A powerful gang coalition attacked a once peaceful farming community nestled in the hills above Haiti’s capital, killing multiple people, an official told The Associated Press on Monday.
Kenscoff Mayor Jean Massillon said armed men raided the community late Sunday, setting fire to homes and killing residents.
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“It is still impossible to establish a definitive death toll due to access difficulties and communication problems,” he said.
Wails filled the air in Kenscoff as survivors found the bodies of friends and family strewn on the streets early Monday.
“They killed my son!” one woman kept yelling as people nearby tried to comfort her.
One man flung himself on the side of the road, head on his right arm as he cried on the ground. Nearby, people picked up the bodies of those killed, some wrapped in blood-spattered sheets.
Robert Jean recalled how he heard shooting before dawn and tried to rustle people from their sleep to escape being killed. He said he was frantically looking for his brother, who was killed: “I was calling to see if everyone was safe. I could not find my brother.”
Another Kenscoff resident blamed the government for the killings.
“If only we had a good police force that would have placed an armored truck here, what happened here would been prevented,” said Verti Enold-Saint as he lifted a sheet over the body of his brother-in-law.
Farmer Mathurin Pierre, 41, told AP that he lost 14 loved ones and that an unknown number remain missing.
Massillon blamed the attack on members of Viv Ansanm, which the U.S. government designated as a foreign terrorist organization last year.
“They sowed chaos,” Massillon said.
He said gang members targeted a church and homes including those owned by Dr. Jean “Bill” Pape. He is a renowned doctor who runs a nongovernmental organization in Haiti that helps patients including those with HIV and tuberculosis.
No further details about the attack were available. A spokesperson for the U.N.-backed gang suppression force did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Haiti’s government issued a statement condemning what it called a heinous criminal attack. “Reinforcements are being deployed,” it said. “Kenscoff will not be abandoned.”
It said that security forces have been ordered to pursue those responsible. “The population must remain confident,” the government said, adding that it would not back down.
Gangs control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince, the capital, with Viv Ansanm repeatedly targeting nearby Kenscoff.
Gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,100 people were reported killed from January to June and another 1,189 injured, according to U.N. statistics.
The attack comes less than a week after the U.S. government deported more than 160 people to the troubled Caribbean country for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Haitians.
Haiti's government has said some of the deportees included TPS holders. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Monday in a statement to the AP that those deported Friday included several gang members with criminal records ranging from assault to drug trafficking.
Haiti is scheduled to hold general elections for the first time in more than a decade on Dec. 13, and it has been registering voters in Port-au-Prince and beyond. Experts have warned it's currently too dangerous to hold elections.
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Associated Press reporter Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america