Haiti Gang Retaliation Leaves at Least 11 Dead in Artibonite After UN-Backed Operation

Gang members killed at least 11 people in Haiti’s central Artibonite region on Monday, in what local authorities describe as a Haiti gang retaliation strike following a security operation by the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force. The attack, in the Gros-Morne area, also saw homes burned as the Kokorat San Ras gang targeted civilians hours after the multinational force withdrew to its base in Gonaïves.

The killings are the latest reprisal against residents in areas contested by armed groups, striking at the farming heartland of Artibonite — a region where Haiti’s security crisis has steadily worsened beyond the capital, Port-au-Prince. The exact death toll remains unconfirmed, with local reports ranging from 10 to 12 dead.

What happened in Gros-Morne

According to Reuters, at least 11 people were killed on Monday, September 28, 2026, by gang members in the Artibonite region. The attack hit localities in and around Dosni, in the Gros-Morne area of upper Artibonite — local outlets also name nearby Moulin, Crépin and Ti Bwadòm as affected areas.

Hubert Ceneac, the interim executive agent at the Gros-Morne mayor’s office, told Radio Kiskeya that the attackers were members of the Kokorat San Ras gang. “The bandits in retaliation attacked… they killed and burned homes,” Ceneac said, putting the toll at between 11 and 12 people killed.

Le Concret Info reported that around ten farmers were killed in the Moulin communal section of Gros-Morne, attributing the attack to Kokorat San Ras as a riposte to the earlier intervention by the Gang Suppression Force. La Brève Info put the toll at 11 dead in the locality of Crépin, while Radio Principal FM reported more than ten killed around Ti Bwadòm, noting that some local sources spoke of 12 or more dead while the exact figure had not been officially confirmed.

Le Quotidien 509, citing the Gros-Morne mayor’s office, reported at least 12 people killed on Monday morning at Dosni, in the third communal section of Rivière-Blanche, adding that gang members invaded the locality and set fire to several houses belonging to residents.

The UN-backed operation that came first

Earlier on Monday, a Sri Lankan unit of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force — known locally as the Force de répression des gangs (FRG) — pushed back gang members who had set up illegal toll points in the area, Reuters reported, citing Mayor Ceneac’s account to Radio Kiskeya.

The operation left three gang members dead, the force said in a statement, according to Reuters. Haitian outlet Le Quotidien 509 reported at least three gang members wounded in the intervention, which took place in the gang’s fief at the fourth communal section.

Ceneac said the UN-backed unit stayed only a few hours before returning to its base in Gonaïves. It was after that withdrawal, residents and officials say, that the gang returned and turned its guns on civilians.

Radio Principal FM, citing local sources, reported that armed men interpreted the presence of the force’s armored vehicles — seen patrolling along National Road No. 5 — as an operation targeting their group, and that after the security forces left, the individuals came back and opened fire on civilians in what is presented as an act of reprisal.

Kokorat San Ras and the Artibonite stronghold

Ceneac told Reuters the area is a stronghold of the Kokorat San Ras gang, which is based at Ti Bwadòm. The gang has in recent months extended its grip over parts of Gros-Morne — Le Concret Info noted that former deputy Vickens Dérilus had previously issued a distress call alerting authorities to the presence of armed men in the commune, a call that reportedly went unanswered until the massacre.

The attack fits a grim pattern in Artibonite, Haiti’s breadbasket and a key agricultural region. Haiti’s security crisis has worsened well beyond the capital Port-au-Prince as gangs have expanded their reach into rural areas, adopting hit-and-run tactics, roadblocks and reprisals against communities caught between armed groups and thinly stretched security forces.

Rosy Ducena, who heads the National Human Rights Defense Network, told Reuters that the total death toll and the scale of the damage were not yet clear. “However, we have already received a report of a single family that lost several members,” she said.

A second attack days earlier in Petite-Rivière

The Gros-Morne killings came just days after another deadly episode in the same department. According to Le Quotidien 509, at least eight people were killed on Saturday in the locality of Palmiste, in the second communal section of Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite, in an attack attributed to members of the Gran Grif and Palmis gangs.

The same outlet reported that the Palmiste violence began after a self-defense group detained two people described as close to the gangs — one identified as a niece of the Palmis gang’s leader. In retaliation, the gangs captured several hundred residents and threatened to execute them unless the two were freed; several hostages who tried to flee were shot dead, according to Bertide Horace of the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness. Both detainees were eventually released around 1 a.m., and the other hostages were freed.

Le Quotidien 509 puts the combined toll of the two attacks at at least twenty dead — a figure that, like the individual tolls, has not been independently confirmed by national authorities.

What happens next

The timing could hardly be more sensitive. The Gang Suppression Force’s mandate is set to expire this week if it is not extended by the UN Security Council, with a vote scheduled for Tuesday morning, according to Reuters. The multinational mission, which replaced the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission earlier this year, is meant to tackle the rampant gang violence — but Monday’s events have raised fresh questions about whether brief operations followed by withdrawals leave civilians exposed to exactly this kind of reprisal.

Ceneac told Le Quotidien 509 he fears the situation could worsen in the coming days if the security forces — the FRG and the Haitian National Police — do not reinforce their presence in Dosni and in downtown Gros-Morne.

Political reactions were swift. Me André Michel, leader of the Coalition des Forces Républicaines, strongly condemned the Gros-Morne massacre, in which he said more than ten people were assassinated, and used the moment to reaffirm his opposition to any dialogue with armed groups. “Our position is clear: we do not negotiate with criminal gangs,” he said, according to Alternance Media.

Conclusion

Monday’s killings in Artibonite underscore a brutal logic of Haiti’s gang war: operations that do not hold ground can trigger deadly reprisals against the civilians they are meant to protect. With the UN Security Council set to vote on the Gang Suppression Force’s future on Tuesday, whether the mission can move from brief interventions to sustained protection will weigh heavily on that decision.

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