Overview:
Haiti’s Nationwide Police misplaced three officers and an armored automobile in gang assaults in Liancourt and Kenscoff between Aug. 11 and 13. The incidents mark the primary lethal toll for newly appointed Director Basic André Jonas Vladimir Paraison, who faces mounting public stress to revive safety.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — In simply three days, Haiti’s Nationwide Police (PNH) misplaced three officers and an armored automobile in lethal clashes with gangs in Liancourt and Kenscoff, underscoring the dimensions of the nation’s rampant safety disaster.
The assaults between Aug. 11 and 13 focused members of the Short-term Anti-Gang Unit (UTAG) and the Departmental Operations and Intervention Brigade (BOID). They got here lower than per week after André Jonas Vladimir Paraison took workplace as police director normal, changing embattled Normil Rameau with a vital mandate to revive stability amid escalating gang violence.
On Aug. 11, UTAG officer Man Rurley Bathalien, from the thirty fourth graduating class, was shot within the neck throughout a gunfight with the Gran Grif gang in Liancourt, Artibonite Division. He died after being taken to the hospital. The realm has skilled repeated lethal assaults on police, with gangs sustaining management regardless of sporadic operations supported by the Kenya-led multinational power (MSS).
Lower than 48 hours later, a BOID patrol in Kenscoff, a couple of miles southeast of the capital, was ambushed. Two officers had been killed, their our bodies dragged on the bottom by the assailants. Three others had been wounded.
“In Kenscoff, what plan do we’ve got when day by day bandits problem the police by killing officers, stealing weapons, and setting armored automobiles on hearth?”
Mackenley Étienne, Fb person
PNH deputy spokesperson Lionel Lazarre stated the officers tried to return hearth however had been compelled to retreat. The victims’ names within the Kenscoff assault haven’t been launched.
Through the assault, gang members set hearth to an armored police automobile within the Téléco space — days after two armored automobiles belonging to the MSS had been destroyed on Aug. 9. The attackers additionally seized firearms, bulletproof vests and different tools. Movies circulating on-line present gang members desecrating the officers’ our bodies, setting them ablaze and brandishing stolen weapons.
Management examined as safety disaster persists
Paraison, a former divisional commissioner and founding father of BOID in 2015, was appointed Aug. 8. His first week in workplace has already been marked by police officer deaths and tools losses.
He inherits a power weakened by sustained gang assaults. From 2024 to June 2025, the PNH reported greater than 33 officers killed, over 18 police stations burned and about 90% of the capital fell underneath gang management.
Shocked by photos of the assaults, residents voiced outrage on the PNH’s Facebook page, calling for pressing reforms.
“In Kenscoff, what plan do we’ve got when day by day bandits problem the police by killing officers, stealing weapons, and setting armored automobiles on hearth?” wrote Mackenley Étienne.
One other person, Justin Joël, warned that extra officers’ households could be left with out breadwinners if the state of affairs continued.
“Inform me what we’re doing for the nation: is it simply good speeches and strategic conferences whereas the bandits advance? The place are the drones and the intelligence funds?” Joël requested.
Regardless of assist from the Multinational Safety Assist Mission, gangs retain management of a number of neighborhoods in Kenscoff. Roads linking the capital to the Southeast Division are blocked, and residents are fleeing.
Seeking assist, Paraison has begun assembly with Haitian and worldwide companions. On Aug. 11, he met with MSS commander Godfrey Otunge. Within the following days, he held talks with Canada’s ambassador, U.S. State Division officers, Prime Minister Fils-Aimé and new CPT president Laurent Saint-Cyr.
Paraison attended his first assembly because the PNH director normal on Aug. 13, when he labored with the Superior Council of the Nationwide Police (CSPN), which incorporates each the prime minister and the CPT president.
After these conferences, officers reiterated a “zero tolerance” coverage towards gangs.
“The federal government reaffirms its dedication to combating insecurity in all its varieties,” the Prime Minister’s workplace stated in a statement. “And to working hand in hand with the entire nation’s energetic forces to construct a way forward for peace, stability and hope for the Haitian individuals.”