The Viv Ansanm gang coalition intensified its attacks on Pétion-Ville and surrounding upscale neighborhoods in February 2025, targeting one of the last remaining areas of relative safety in Port-au-Prince that had previously been insulated from the worst of the gang violence by its elevation, wealth, and concentrated security resources. The attacks marked a qualitative escalation in the gang offensive against the last pockets of normal urban life in the capital.
Pétion-Ville’s commercial district, which had maintained a degree of economic activity even as the lower city was consumed by gang violence, saw businesses close and residents flee as gang fighters entered neighborhoods that had been considered safe just months earlier. International organizations that had concentrated staff in Pétion-Ville precisely because of its relative security found themselves reassessing their operational assumptions.
The attacks on Pétion-Ville were connected to the gang coalition’s strategic objective of demonstrating total control over Port-au-Prince. By showing that even the most affluent and fortified parts of the city were vulnerable, Viv Ansanm was asserting dominance that would reinforce their bargaining position in any eventual political negotiations and demoralize security forces and the transitional government.
The Kenyan security mission adjusted its operations to focus on protecting key Pétion-Ville locations, recognizing that the loss of the neighborhood to gang control would represent a devastating symbolic and practical blow. But with fewer than 1,000 personnel, the mission could not be everywhere simultaneously, and the defense of Pétion-Ville came at the cost of reduced presence elsewhere.