Overview:
Haitian police and MSS troops have regained management of the strategic Téléco website on the Kenscoff mountain from the “Viv Ansanm” gang, which had threatened aviation security by seizing important infrastructure. The operation comes amid an ongoing FAA industrial flight ban and rising violence in provincial cities like Gros-Morne in Artibonite.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haitian police (PNH), backed by forces from the Multinational Safety Help Mission (MSS), regained management of the strategic Téléco website in Kenscoff mountain Monday, Aug. 25, from the armed gang Viv Ansanm, whose occupation of the bottom had disrupted communications and endangered aviation security.
MSS spokesperson Jack Ombaka stated the operation concerned a coordinated sweep by the mountainous commune, about 12 miles southeast of Port-au-Prince. Safety forces went house-to-house, seizing weapons, clearing roads blocked by barricades and apprehending or killing a number of gang members. After the joint operation, residents had been as soon as once more in a position to transfer freely.
“The joint excessive command has warned that anybody who continues to bear arms [illegally] will face decisive motion, and additional focused operations are already underway,” Ombaka stated.
He thanked native residents for his or her cooperation and their resilience as forces labored to safe the world above the Port-au-Prince hills.
The Téléco base is a vital telecommunications and sign hub supporting civil aviation, web, media, and public security operations throughout the nation. Its seize by gangs final week disrupted communications, precipitated concern on the Nationwide Civil Aviation Workplace (OFNAC), and elevated worries as Port-au-Prince stays beneath a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) flight ban following a number of plane being struck by gunfire in 2024.
This was not he first assault on the Kenscoff’s Téléco website. In February 2025, an assault by the “Viv Ansanm” resulted within the dying of a Haitian Armed Forces (FAd’H) soldier, two brokers of the Protected Areas Safety Brigade (BSAP) and accidents to 2 different troopers.
At the moment, the PNH, assisted by MSS officers, launched an operation to retake the location, which had fallen beneath gang management.
A direct risk to civil aviation because the FAA ban remains to be in impact
On Aug. 21, the phobia group Viv Ansanm attacked the location as soon as once more, chopping cables and broadcasting movies of their takeover. The gang coalition, led by infamous and U.S.-indicted Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, initially pushed into Kenscoff, killing residents, forcing scores to flee, burning properties and orchestrating kidnappings—together with eight from a neighborhood orphanage.
OFNAC confirmed sabotage of its tools however stated mitigation measures prevented main flight disruptions.
“Efforts are underway to totally restore affected companies as shortly and effectively as attainable,” OFNAC officers stated in a statement on Aug. 23.
The gang confronted little resistance in its newest assault. In a single video, a masked man recognized as “Izo 2” was seen disconnecting aviation tools with a screwdriver whereas declaring victory.
The FAA imposed its industrial flight ban in November 2024 after two industrial planes had been hit by gunfire close to Toussaint Louverture Worldwide Airport. One Spirit Airways flight was pressured into an emergency diversion, adopted by an American Airways jet that was struck throughout touchdown.
“The joint excessive command has warned that anybody who continues to bear arms [illegally] will face decisive motion, and additional focused operations are already underway.”
Jack Ombaka, MSS spokesperson
The ban, initially short-term, has been prolonged repeatedly and now stays in place till no less than subsequent month. As a situation for resuming operations, the industrial carriers demanded safety ensures, which precipitated the transitional authorities to demolish over 200 residential homes constructed round Toussaint Louverture Worldwide Airport. In response to authorities, these properties had been getting used as hideouts by gangs.
Even home carriers comparable to Dawn Airways additionally suspended flights to and from Port-au-Prince till the Haitian authorities provided safety ensures and a monetary insurance coverage bundle in June. The deal allowed restricted flights to Cap-Haïtien, Jacmel, Jérémie and Les Cayes to renew.
Violence spreads to provinces
The battle for Kenscoff’s Téléco website underscores gangs’ rising ambition to manage strategic infrastructure, however violence can be spreading in provincial cities—significantly within the Artibonite and the Centre departments as these prison teams march towards the north.
In Gros-Morne, Artibonite, the place repeated assaults have occurred, no less than 5 individuals had been killed and two kidnapped on Sunday, Aug. 24, by the gang Kokorat San Ras. Among the many kidnapped was entrepreneur Wednaire Gédéon, proprietor of Union Gros-Morne Radio station.
This assault occurred simply someday after the return of Divisional Commissioner Jacques Ader as head of the Artibonite Departmental Police Directorate, a place he beforehand held in 2021 throughout a interval of intensive battle in opposition to gangs. His comeback underscores the instability of police management within the division, which has seen frequent reshuffling over the previous 5 years.
- Ader had first changed Louis Edner Hyacinthe in December 2020, earlier than being succeeded by Jean Joël Casséus in June 2021.
- Casséus was then changed by Ralph Dominique in December 2021, adopted by Bruce Jean Myrthil in December 2022.
- Goodson Jeune took over from Myrthil in February 2023 and was succeeded by Paul Ménard Jean-Louis in August 2023, then Caleb Exantus in October 2024.
- Jean Frenel Beauvoir was named departmental police chief in July 2025, changing Exantus, however lasted lower than a month earlier than being changed by Ader on Saturday, Aug. 23.
Regardless of these successive management adjustments, gang violence in Artibonite continues to worsen. From his first day again in workplace, Ader confronted a surge in bloodshed marked by the Gros-Morne killings.
Mayor Hubert Ceneac stated residents live in terror as gangs overrun the city. “They [residents] are exhausted and really feel deserted,” the mayor conceded. “We’re exhausted by this phenomenon that forestalls residents from freely finishing up their every day actions. The police power is severely understaffed,” he instructed The Haitian Instances.
“We hope that the very best authorities within the nation will take into account the state of affairs of the civilian inhabitants of Gros-Morne and step in to guard us from ongoing bandit assaults,” Ceneac added.
He lamented that for greater than 35 months, the Ministry of the Inside has failed to offer any monetary help to the commune.
As gangs sowed terror within the Artibonite, dozens of displaced residents from neighborhoods within the capital—comparable to Solino, Delmas 2, Delmas 6, Delmas 30 and Nazon—additionally marched Sunday, demanding protected passage again residence. “Life within the camps is hell,” one protester stated.
As insecurity spreads from Port-au-Prince to the provinces, safety forces are beneath strain to show that good points just like the Monday operation in Kenscoff will be replicated — or threat ceding extra of Haiti’s very important infrastructure to armed teams.