Haiti ramps up the fight against gangs in the capital, but violence spreads elsewhere

The killings in Kenscoff began late Sunday, when armed men descended on the farming community in the hills overlooking Haiti’s capital, setting homes ablaze and attacking residents. By Monday, bodies lay in the streets and survivors were searching for missing relatives.At least 47 people were killed and 22 wounded in the raid, according to news reports, in one of the deadliest recent attacks on the once relatively peaceful area, which has increasingly become a target for armed groups seeking to expand beyond Port-au-Prince.The massacre offered a grim coda to a new UN report released Tuesday documenting how Haiti’s gang violence is spreading geographically even as the authorities’ anti-gang campaign intensifies in Port-au-Prince.At least 1,408 people were killed and 656 injured from April through June, according to the UN Integrated Office in Haiti, known by its French acronym, BINUH. That was about 14 per cent fewer casualties than during the first three months of the year, a modest decline masking starkly different realities across the country. More than half of the casualties were attributed to gangs, while about 40 per cent occurred during security operations against them and 5 ...