Kenscoff — a mountainous community south of Port-au-Prince that had become one of the capital’s last relatively safe areas — became a focus of security operations by the Kenya mission and Haitian police in 2025, as the MSS concentrated resources on protecting one of the few remaining pockets of normalcy in a city where gang control had spread to most neighborhoods. The operations aimed to prevent Kenscoff from suffering the fate of Pétion-Ville and other previously secure areas that had fallen under gang pressure.
Kenscoff’s elevation and relative isolation had historically provided some natural protection from the gang violence that dominated the lower city. Its cooler climate, wealthier population, and distance from the most contested areas had maintained a degree of normal life even as Port-au-Prince below was consumed by crisis. Markets still functioned, some schools remained open, and residents could move with a relative freedom unavailable elsewhere in the metropolitan area.
The MSS’s focus on Kenscoff illustrated the difficult strategic choices facing a small force in a large and complex security environment. Protecting Kenscoff meant concentrating resources that could not then be deployed elsewhere. The strategic logic of protecting the last safe areas was sound — preventing further loss of stable territory — but it meant accepting the continued gang control of areas that were already lost.
Community members in Kenscoff expressed cautious appreciation for the security presence while acknowledging that it could be withdrawn or reduced at any time. The precariousness of their security situation — dependent on a small international force rather than on genuine state capacity — was understood by residents who had watched the progressive erosion of security across the rest of the capital over the preceding years.