On the night of 23 August 2026, gunmen attacked Kenscoff, a farming community in the hills above Port-au-Prince, and killed at least 47 people. Twenty-two were executed inside a church compound where displaced families were sheltering. At least 25 homes were burned, more than 50 people were taken hostage, and more than 2,600 fled, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Within days a gang commander known as Izo 2, acting for gang leader Johnson Andre, posted a video addressed to National Police director Vladimir Paraison: "Paraison, if any of our soldiers are hurt, I will kill all of them," meaning the hostages. The threat is aimed at Haiti's armed drone campaign, which Human Rights Watch says killed at least 1,243 people between March 2025 and January 2026. That campaign has no documented step for checking who is in a target area before a strike. This piece sets out what such a step would involve, where AI can help, and where it cannot.
Kenscoff had been recovering before the raid
Kenscoff was attacked in January 2025 as well. Security operations in the first eight months of 2026 had cut violence there by an estimated 66 percent, according to figures cited by the Haitian Times, and officials had started to describe it as a place where gains were holding.
After the raid, UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack. Paraison sent specialised units and ordered an inquiry into whether local police failed through complicity or negligence. Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime's office said Kenscoff would not be abandoned. At the time of writing, no official account of the hostages, how many remain held and how many have been freed, had been published.
Nationally, gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people, according to UN figures reported by the Haitian Times.
What Human Rights Watch documented about the drone strikes
Human Rights Watch counted 141 drone operations between 1 March 2025 and 21 January 2026:
- At least 1,243 people killed, an average of 8.8 per operation, and 738 injured.
- At least 43 adults and 17 children killed who had no link to any criminal group; at least 49 injured non-combatants.
- 57 people killed in the single deadliest operation.
- 29 strikes between August and October 2025, rising to 57 between November 2025 and 21 January 2026.
Strikes continued after the report's cut-off, so the total by August 2026 is higher. On 20 September 2025, a drone hit a gathering in the Simon Pele neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince where a gang leader was handing out birthday gifts. Ten people with no gang link were killed, nine of them children aged three to twelve. "Dozens of ordinary people, including many children, have been killed and injured in these lethal drone operations," said Juanita Goebertus, Human Rights Watch's Americas director.
How strikes are decided now
The Task Force was created by Prime Minister Fils-Aime on 1 March 2025, with operational support from Vectus Global, a private military company founded by Erik Prince, who also founded Blackwater. Vectus Global hired Salvadoran operators, and the US State Department issued the company an export licence for the defence services involved. Human Rights Watch says the chain of command and Vectus Global's exact role remain unclear.
The aircraft are armed quadcopters and loitering munitions. An operator watches a live video feed and decides from that feed who is a target. No second reviewer is documented, there is no automated alert for a group that includes children, and there is no public record of who approved each strike.
The Core Argument
A strike process that rests on one operator's reading of a video feed cannot reliably tell a bound hostage from a gunman. Izo 2 is relying on that gap, and Haiti can close much of it with procedure and record-keeping, with AI as an aid to both.
Why the hostage threat works
If operators cannot reliably tell a captive from a fighter on screen, a stronghold full of hostages is effectively protected from the drones. Izo 2 said as much on video.
Human Rights Watch's March 2026 report had already called for four changes: lethal drone use limited to narrow circumstances consistent with human rights law, transparent investigation and prosecution of unlawful killings, reparations to families, and suspension of Vectus Global's support pending accountability. None had been implemented by August.
What a verification step would involve
The main fix is procedural. Before any strike, a second person reviews the feed and signs off, and the decision is logged with the footage. AI tools can support that review in three ways:
- Alerts for protected people. Computer vision models can flag signs such as restrained movement or people who appear to be children, and force a pause for review. These models make mistakes on low-resolution aerial footage, so an alert should always stop a strike for review, and the absence of one should never clear it.
- Automatic logging. Every alert, every override and every strike is recorded with time, footage and the names of the people who decided. That is the audit trail Human Rights Watch says is missing.
- Pattern review. Analysing the log over weeks shows which units, times or locations produce the most civilian harm, so commanders can change practice.
For the Kenscoff rescue itself, the most useful data work is simple: a register of who is missing, compiled from families and displacement records, with photographs, so teams know who they are looking for. Proposals to use facial recognition in a rescue deserve caution; false matches in a close-quarters operation can cost lives, and the data would need strict limits on reuse.
None of this would have stopped the 23 August ground assault. The question verification answers is narrower: whether the next strike near a hostage kills the gunman, the captive beside him, or both. I should be plain about the weakness in my own proposal: a review step only works if the people running the programme want it to, and nothing in the record so far shows that they do. Outside pressure, from funders and from the governments that license the contractor, is likely to be what decides it.
What CARICOM governments should take from Haiti
Haiti is a CARICOM member, and its drone programme is the first large-scale use of lethal, foreign-contracted security technology in the bloc. Governments facing gang pressure in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and elsewhere are watching it.
For CARICOM Policymakers
Any Caribbean government considering armed or AI-assisted security technology should make verification, logging and independent review conditions of deployment. Haiti's Task Force has operated since March 2025 and still has no published safeguards.
What should happen next
- Haitian National Police and the Task Force: require a documented second sign-off for every strike. Start with any operation near a known hostage location, and log the footage and names of approvers.
- Police, IOM and UN teams on the Kenscoff response: compile a missing-persons register. Collect names, photographs and last known locations from families, and share it only with rescue teams under agreed limits.
- An independent body, such as the UN human rights office in Haiti: audit the strike logs. Neither Vectus Global nor the Task Force should be the only party with access.
- The US State Department: attach reporting conditions to the Vectus Global export licence. Require casualty reporting and review procedures as conditions of renewal.
- CARICOM heads of government: agree a regional standard for lethal and AI-assisted security technology. Do it before another member state signs a contract with a private military firm.
Frequently Asked Questions
What legal rules apply to drone strikes in Haiti?
Human Rights Watch assesses the operations under law enforcement standards, which allow lethal force only when strictly unavoidable to protect life. That is a much narrower test than the rules for armed conflict, and it is the basis for its view that many strikes were unlawful. Whether Haiti's situation amounts to an armed conflict is contested, and the answer changes which legal framework applies.
Who monitors human rights in Haiti?
The UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) includes a human rights service that works with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and publishes regular reports on killings, kidnappings and abuses by gangs and security forces. Human Rights Watch and Haitian organisations such as the National Human Rights Defense Network also document cases. Their reports are the main public source for casualty figures.
How can families report someone missing after the Kenscoff attack?
Families should report missing relatives to the Haitian National Police and to the International Organization for Migration's displacement teams, which register people in displacement sites. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Haitian Red Cross run family tracing services for people separated by violence. Bring a photograph and details of where the person was last seen.
Is Haiti's drone programme connected to the international security mission?
No. The drone Task Force is a Haitian government operation supported by the private contractor Vectus Global. The international mission is separate: the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, authorised by the UN Security Council in 2023, was followed by a Gang Suppression Force authorised in 2025. Each has its own mandate and oversight.
Can AI make drone strikes safe?
No. AI tools can prompt a review and create a record, but they misclassify people in poor footage and cannot resolve the legal question of whether force was necessary. Their value is in making every strike documented and reviewable. The decision, and the accountability for it, stay with people.