An armed conflict within Haiti’s powerful coalition of gangs has reportedly led to multiple fatalities and has at least one major gang leader on the run.

The confrontation began around 4 a.m. Tuesday in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Reports say dozens of gunmen were killed in the conflict, including a high-ranking gang leader who went by the name of “Dèdè”. An image of a severed head, shared online, was identified as belonging to him.

Other videos shared online showed the slaughtered bodies of gang members, some of whom had been set on fire. Fire was also reported in several gang strongholds.

The clash appears to have been triggered by a dispute over kidnappings, which have been surging in recent months, and has led to the ouster of Kempes Sanon, a powerful gang leader and former police officer. He was reportedly shot and is in hiding, a source told the Miami Herald.

In a video released Tuesday, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier — a former cop tuned gang leader and spokesman for the gang alliance that calls itself Viv Ansanm (Living together) — said one of the “generals” within the coalition had ignored repeated warnings to halt kidnappings, prompting another group within Viv Ansanm to intervene “to free the hostages.”

Chérizier claimed that six people standing beside him in the video, including a 12-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man, were former hostages who had been liberated by the coalition. Viv Ansanm, he said, was “fighting for the country.”

“We don’t want the matter of kidnapping,” Chérizier, adding that one of the factions inside Viv Ansanm “didn’t understand when we told them no kidnappings …They didn’t want to listen to us. ... Today, Viv Ansanm decided to be done with the kidnapping issue.”

While Chérizier did not name the “general,” sources told the Herald it’s Sanon, who has been a key ally of Chérizier’s and was recently sanctioned by both the United States and the United Nations for supporting Viv Ansanm’s widespread terror campaign. The alliance’s violence has led to thousands of deaths across the Haitian capital and beyond, and forced more than 1.4 million people to flee their homes.

Tensions inside Haiti’s gang coalition had been simmering for weeks as the Haiti National Police intensified operations against the 400 Mawozo gang, part of Viv Ansanm. Those operations, however, had recently gone quiet.

As the clash erupted on Tuesday, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé was in New York, where officials from Canada and the U.S. were meeting to discuss the new U.S.-backed “Gang Suppression Force.” The high-level meeting aimed to raise the money and the 5,500 troops needed for the new international armed mission approved by the United Nations in September.

On Monday, a new contingent of 230 Kenyan police officers arrived in Port-au-Prince as part of a rotation that had been put on hold due to uncertainty over the East African nation’s role in the new mission. The fifth Kenyan contingent, the group comprises highly specialized police officers, Force Commander Godfrey Otunge said as he welcomed them to the country. More than 700 Kenyan personnel have now been deployed to Haiti since June 26, 2024, as part of the Multinational Security Support mission.

Otunge said the new officers are arriving “at a critical moment” following the expanded suppression force mandate.

Kenya, he said, stands with Haiti “for as long as it takes, until peace prevails.” In addition to Kenyans there are officers in Haiti from The Jamaica, El Salvador and Guatemala.

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