At least 81 people were reported kidnapped in Haiti between April and June 2026, a 42% increase from the first quarter. Gangs targeted prominent people and carried out mass abductions ahead of general elections. Kidnappings have reached areas considered safe, striking people at the center of Haiti’s political, economic and international presence.
In June, kidnappers seized James Boyard, police inspector general and cabinet director of Haiti’s Defense Ministry, in broad daylight in Bourdon, a Port-au-Prince neighborhood considered relatively safe. He hasn’t been released. Local media also reported the abductions of well-known attorney Caleb Jean-Baptiste and Stéphanie Paultre, director general of Haiti’s National Office for Educational Partnerships.
Ransom and the people targeted
Haitian attorney Dorime Boulos held a press conference in mid-September to announce a fundraiser to help free Jean-Baptiste. “We don’t have the amount they’re asking for,” Boulos said, declining to reveal the ransom demanded. Most Haitians don’t report abductions of loved ones because they fear reprisals, higher ransoms or disrupting negotiations with kidnappers.
Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said abducting a high-value hostage can bring a larger ransom and help protect a gang’s territory from an offensive. “It takes intelligence to kidnap high-level targets, and that intelligence usually comes from collusion,” he said, citing allegations that some law enforcement agents were involved.
Le Cour said criminal groups used official or cloned police uniforms, vehicles and license plates to carry out abductions. A 2023 U.N. report said “gang members are increasingly resorting to wearing fake police uniforms to carry out kidnappings.”
The figures show violence reaching far beyond prominent targets. The U.N. reported 234 cases in 2020, a 200% increase from 78 abductions in 2019. Reported kidnappings rose to 655 in 2021, a 180% increase from the previous year. The total reached 1,359 in 2022 and 2,490 in 2023, an 83% increase from 2022. At least 2,058 people were reported kidnapped in 2024. Reported kidnappings fell nearly 40% to 1,268 in 2025, but many abductions went unreported, and the actual number was believed to be much higher.
Police, elections and state authority
Haiti was preparing for general elections, and the country had not had a president since President Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021. Violence has surged since then. “Elections act as accelerators,” Le Cour said. “Each of these cases draws international attention and puts pressure on every political actor in Haiti. It exposes cracks, failures and the state’s inability to protect even its own.”
Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said restoring security was a top priority. He said 4,000 new police officers were being trained in 2026 and another 1,500 soldiers had completed training, with a total of 15,000 new soldiers planned over the next three years. In late September, Haiti’s National Police said nearly a dozen officers had trained to negotiate with kidnappers.
“We are strengthening our national forces to meet our security challenges,” Fils-Aimé said. “Given the scale of the challenges, the support of our international partners for security remains essential.” On Tuesday, September 29, 2026, the mandate of a U.N.-backed gang suppression force was renewed. The force had almost 1,600 personnel, and its size would likely double soon, Daniela Kroslak, assistant secretary-general and head of mission of the U.N. Support Office in Haiti, said.
Civilians bear the cost
This summer, gangs attacked Kenscoff, a farming community near Port-au-Prince, killing at least 164 people and kidnapping more than 70 others. The gangs later released six children and seven women; the rest remained captive. In the waning days of September, gangs in Petite-Rivière held hundreds of civilians hostage for two days in retaliation after police arrested a couple of gang members. At least eight people were killed and 10 others injured, said Bertide Horace, spokesperson for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite. “People were trying to escape, and they shot them for no reason,” she told The Associated Press. “The state needs to take more action.”
The abduction and killing of high school student Évelyne Sincère in 2020 sparked large protests demanding government action. A February 2022 U.N. report said, “No social group was spared; among the victims were laborers, traders, religious leaders, professors, medical doctors, journalists, human rights defenders and foreign citizens.” Le Cour said gangs now strike areas considered safe, sending a stark message: “The police cannot protect the population, and the state itself is vulnerable.”