{"id":1029048,"date":"2026-08-28T07:29:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1029048\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T07:29:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:29:30","slug":"haitians-demand-answers-after-gangs-kill-47-kidnap-more-than-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1029048\/","title":{"rendered":"Haitians demand answers after gangs kill 47, kidnap more than 50"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) \u2014 Haiti\u2019s National Police faced mounting criticism Thursday over why authorities failed to prevent a recent gang attack<\/a> in which 47 people were killed and more than 50 kidnapped.<\/p>\n

Police spokesperson Garry Desrosiers took only a handful of questions from journalists at a news conference Thursday, just days after gangs attacked Kenscoff, a once-peaceful farming community nestled in the hills near Port-au-Prince<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked what police are planning to do about those kidnapped, Desrosiers said he could not answer that question publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot talk about any plans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One gang leader has threatened to execute all the hostages if any gang members are killed as police work to secure Kenscoff.<\/p>\n

Desrosiers expressed condolences to all those affected by the violent attack launched late Sunday.<\/p>\n

New burst of violence leaves Haitians homeless<\/p>\n

More than 2,600 people were displaced, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration, and anger and frustration are mounting. Desrosiers said police are working on helping them return home, but he did not provide specifics.<\/p>\n

One journalist questioned whether there was any intelligence gathered prior to the attack, with Desrosiers responding that authorities have been working on gathering intelligence.<\/p>\n

He added that police are aware that one gang leader is threatening to attack Tabarre, a neighborhood within Port-au-Prince where the U.S. embassy is located.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not in a position to give you detailed information,\u201d Desrosiers said.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Paraison, head of Haiti\u2019s National Police, was not present at the news conference. He recently defended security measures in Kenscoff and said that an investigation was underway to establish the truth about the attack \u201cwhether due to complicity or negligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between January and August this year, security operations had managed to reduce violence in Kenscoff by 66% prior to Sunday\u2019s attack, according to the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data.<\/p>\n

US deports more people to Haiti as violence surges<\/p>\n

As Haiti reels from the attack, the U.S. on Thursday deported dozens more people to the troubled country.<\/p>\n

Among the deportees was a professional boxer, who said he was born in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about Haiti,\u201d said Jay Dabelus. \u201cI wasn\u2019t born here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dabelus said he left the Bahamas when he was about 6 years old and had been living for more than 20 years in the United States before he was detained.<\/p>\n

As he spoke, he looked at his surroundings in northern Haiti.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is nice here, but I\u2019m trying to move on,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any resources, family members or people to aid me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s flight arrived in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien because the main international airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is deemed too dangerous.<\/p>\n

Aboard the flight were more than 50 people including two young children, according to Kerlande Desauguste, an official with Haiti\u2019s National Office of Migration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply concerned about the safety of Haitians in Haiti and those being returned to a country where the government cannot currently guarantee their protection,\u201d said Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, a U.S.-based humanitarian group.<\/p>\n

Thursday marked the second deportation flight since Temporary Protected Status ended<\/a> for some 350,000 Haitians in the United States.<\/p>\n

The first one arrived on Aug. 20, carrying more than 160 people<\/a>, including TPS holders.<\/p>\n

Like previous deportees, the ones who arrived on Thursday covered their faces for safety.<\/p>\n

Gang violence has displaced<\/a> a record of nearly 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,050 people were reported killed from January to June, according to U.N. statistics.<\/p>\n

Armed men control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince and swaths of land in Haiti\u2019s central region and beyond, with poverty and hunger deepening as gang violence persists.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporter D\u00e1nica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) \u2014 Haiti\u2019s National Police faced mounting criticism Thursday over why authorities failed to prevent a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1029049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[1613,4219,411545,57,8884,6604,411546,22938,1612,2936,50,34163,78106,1206,409836,103,107],"class_list":["post-1029048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-central-america","tag-crime","tag-garry-desrosiers","tag-general-news","tag-haiti","tag-international-news","tag-jay-dabelus","tag-kidnapping","tag-latin-america","tag-law-enforcement","tag-news","tag-organized-crime","tag-port-au-prince","tag-united-nations","tag-vladimir-paraison","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117171962832137809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1029048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1029049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1029048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1029048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1029048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}