Dozens killed in Haiti massacre as international force trickles in.

Members of the Kenya MSS patrol the National Port Authority in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 25, 2024. Gangs tore through several rural communities last weekend, underscoring the challenges that will face the new, U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force starting to enter the country. (Adriana Zehbrauskas/The New York Times)

By ANDRÉ PAULTRE and FRANCES ROBLES

Ilres Théophile, a farmer living north of Haiti’s capital, said he woke in the middle of the night last Sunday to the unmistakable sound of heavy gunfire. Gran Grif, a feared gang in the area, had warned for days that it planned to attack a nearby community.

He fled, returning after sunrise to find carnage in the streets. Théophile’s three brothers and his son were among the dead. Homes, including his, were in flames. Gran Grif’s coordinated assault on at least eight towns in the agricultural Artibonite region left as many as 70 people dead.

“My son died with his eyes open,” said Théophile, 55. “We didn’t expect such horror.”

The massacre took place a few days before the arrival of the first wave of a United Nations-backed, multinational force created to quell the spiraling gang violence that has gripped Haiti for years. While the new Gang Suppression Force is expected to take a more aggressive approach than previous efforts, the slaughter in Artibonite underscored the challenges facing both the new force and Haitian police in confronting the heavily armed groups.

The understaffed and ill-equipped police were delayed in responding to the violence because the gang had set up roadblocks, according to both police and human rights activists. When police left the scene after a few hours, the gang returned and set homes ablaze.

“These are terrorists; it’s not something for a police operation,” said Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, a leading human rights group.

Estimates of the death toll range from 42 to 70. Regardless of the exact tally, the U.N.-backed force is not expected to field a full, 5,500-member contingent until the fall, leaving Haitians trapped in the crossfire of a war for power, money and territory.

Nearly 6,000 people died in gang violence in 2025, and more than one-tenth of the country’s population, about 1.4 million people, have been uprooted from their homes, according to U.N. figures.

In 2024, foreign police officers, mostly Kenyan, arrived to back the fledgling Haitian National Police, but they have failed to stop the rampant killings. The new Gang Suppression Force, approved by the U.N. Security Council in September, will be more militarized and act more independently.

Last year, the Haitian government hired military contractors led by Erik Prince, a supporter of President Donald Trump best known for previously owning Blackwater, the private military company. A task force he advises has carried out drone strikes in the metropolitan areas of the capital of Port-au-Prince, but has yet to capture or kill any high-profile gang leader.

Private contractors and international forces have focused mostly on the capital, leaving gangs unchecked in rural areas north of the city, experts say. But in recent months, the gangs seemed to retreat as police secured some roads. More anti-gang operations north of Port-au-Prince are expected in the coming weeks, according to a person familiar with the effort who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The person said police appeared to be improving, and that the arrival of the new multinational force — with soldiers and police officers from Latin America, Africa and Asia — should strengthen the authorities’ hold on areas that have already been cleared and help expand operations.

“The gangs in general were in a bit of a retreat, until this happened,” said Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the special representative for the U.N. secretary-general in Haiti. “Even though there have been some gains in security forces, still, there are challenges in terms of sustaining those gains.”

But the Artibonite killings may signal that gangs are exploiting a transition period, with the Kenyan police leaving in stages, well before the arrival of the full U.N.-backed contingent.

“There’s a transition period now that’s also quite dangerous,” said Bill O’Neill, the U.N.’s human rights expert in Haiti. He predicted that gangs would test the new force to gauge its power, especially before it reaches full strength.

Human rights activists and experts said the massacre was particularly troubling because of reports that it involved so-called self-defense groups, armed vigilantes. The groups, ostensibly formed to fight the gangs, are in some cases little more than gangs themselves. One person involved in the Artibonite assault had reportedly defected from a self-defense group and joined the gang, experts said.

“The people of the Artibonite region are held hostage between the armed self-defense brigades and armed gangs,” said Bertide Horace, a community leader. “The self-defense brigades are also terrorizing the population. The state’s absence in the Artibonite Valley leaves the population to fend for itself.”

The Sunday morning violence began about 2 a.m., when Gran Grif, based in the Savien area, attacked the town of Pon Benwa, before moving on to other towns, according to a preliminary report by the National Human Rights Defense Network. A self-defense group tried to fight back but was outgunned and forced to retreat, the report said.

Gang members forced residents out of their beds, gathered them in courtyards and in the streets, and shot dozens of them, said a senior diplomat who was familiar with the events but not authorized to speak publicly.

An unknown number of people went missing and were presumed abducted.

“Many terrorists from the Savien group were firing in all directions,” Kendy Jean, 41, a teacher who now works as a farmer, said in an interview. “And they fired for hours.”

He said the region felt ignored because police had concentrated their efforts on the capital. “The state has completely abdicated its responsibilities,” he added. “We are alone.”

He said his neighbors counted between 45 and 50 dead. People lost their phones in the mayhem and will not know if a gang member calls to ask for ransom for people they abducted, he said.

In a statement on the social platform X regarding that night, the Haitian National Police said their operations were yielding “great results,” with four gang barricades having been destroyed and several criminals “neutralized.”

Lyvenson Gauthier, a police commissioner in Saint Marc, which encompasses the areas that were hit, said in an interview that townspeople had so far brought 16 bodies to the morgue. People in the region also said that some families buried their own dead.

“The number of cases could be higher, as well as residents who may be missing, but we cannot yet confirm other cases,” he said.

The prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, released a statement offering condolences and vowing swift action against the perpetrators.

“The determination of the government is total: restore the republican order, protect the population and regain control of the national territory,” he said. “The state is engaged in a win-back dynamic.”

Théophile, whose son and brothers died, said the government needed to do more.

“Unfortunately, the Haitian state isn’t taking care of us,” Théophile said. “We’re abandoned.”