Haitian gang attacks town, kills teacher, kidnaps residents and burns
buildings
[September 20, 2025]
By EVENS SANON
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A Haitian gang attacked a small town
northwest of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, killing, kidnapping and
burning down buildings as gang violence devours the Caribbean nation.
Gunmen opened fired on the streets of Bassin Bleu around noon on
Thursday, killing at least one high school teacher, according the
Catholic Church and local leaders.
The surge of violence stirred panic in the community as gang members
burned the police station, the town hall and a number of other buildings
and looted a credit union.
It was the first attack of this scale in the community, which has
largely gone untouched by spiraling gang violence besieging Haiti. Such
brutal attacks on rural communities have grown increasingly common as
gangs have gradually expanded their control across the country.
“Many people in Bassin Bleu managed to escape, and were forced to flee
their homes and cross a river with a powerful current just to not be
suffocated by the violence,” the office of the bishop in northwestern
Haiti wrote in a statement. “What can we do because now we have nowhere
to run."
The office and local leader Rodlet Jean Baptiste, speaking on Radio
Caraibes, blamed the attack on the gang Kokorat San Ras, which has a
firm grip on the region.
The gang is part of a larger gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm, behind
some of the worst atrocities in the Caribbean nation in recent years. In
May, the Trump administration designated the group as a foreign
terrorist organization.
According to a recent report by the United Nations, “Kokorat San Ras,
despite its limited numbers, is also a very brutal gang” that operates
in the Artibonite region. Its roughly 20 members have “committed acts of
extreme violence, forcing people to abandon large areas of cropland and
threatening agricultural production.”
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People displaced by gang violence spend time at a makeshift shelter
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Odelyn
Joseph)
The bishop's office also cast blame on Haitian police and the
country's government, which has struggled to reel in the
heavily-armed gangs. It demanded action in easing soaring gang
violence in the northwest region.
“Why are government authorities, who are responsible for our
people's safety, letting the country reach this state?” it wrote.
“Haitians have become the victims of our own fellow Haitians. We are
tired.”
Haitian National Police did not immediately respond to a request for
comment and more information on the attack.
Years of attempts by U.N. parties and world leaders, including the
U.N. backed Multinational Security Support mission working alongside
Haitian National Police, to put an end to spiraling violence in
Haiti has done little to ease the bloodshed.
Just last week, gunmen threw a Molotov cocktail into an police
armored vehicle, killing three people outside the capital. And days
before that, dozens of people were massacred in a small fishing
village, something a local official said “highlights the urgent need
for effective state intervention.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned such attacks,
saying he was “alarmed by the levels of violence rocking Haiti."
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