SUMMARY
Kokorat San Ras was known for their extensive use of violence and intimidation against civilian populations in Haiti. This violence was aimed at gaining and maintaining territorial dominance, as well as discouraging any resistance or cooperation with either authorities or rival gangs.
The group provided explicit justification for at least some of its attacks against civilians. In March 2023, the leader of Kokorat San Ras issued an audio message directed at residents of Mapou Lagon in the commune of Estère, in which he threatened to carry out a massacre if local carnival bands did not visit the group's stronghold of Joanisse as was customary. In 2024, following accusations by community members that the group had been responsible for a kidnapping, Kokorat San Ras launched a retaliatory attack against the local population, framing the violence as a response to what it characterized as false allegations.
The tactics employed by the gang against civilians were varied. The group carried out armed assaults on populated localities, resulting in killings and injuries among residents. Arson was a consistent feature of its attacks, with houses and agricultural plots systematically burned. The group also engaged in the looting of homes, rice crops, and financial institutions, as well as the kidnapping of civilians for ransom. Attacks were at times preceded by explicit threats, as in the case of the 2023 audio message, lending a deliberate and premeditated character to the violence.
Kokorat San Ras operated primarily in the Artibonite department of Haiti, where it carried out repeated attacks against civilian populations across multiple communes, including Estère, Gros Morne, and Liancourt, among others. However, its activities extended beyond this area. In September 2025, the group carried out an attack on the town of Bassin Bleu in the Northwest Department, marking a notable geographic expansion of its operations.
Kokorat San Ras first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2025, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in December that year, with several attacks against the population of the l’Estère commune in Artibonite, Haiti.
