At least 81 people were reported kidnapped in Haiti between April and June 2026, a 42% increase from the first quarter. Gangs have targeted prominent figures and civilians ahead of long-awaited general elections, exposing the state’s inability to protect people in areas once considered safe. The country relies on international support as it prepares to expand its security forces.
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 still hasn’t been released. Local media also reported the kidnappings of attorney Caleb Jean-Baptiste and Stéphanie Paultre, director general of Haiti’s National Office for Educational Partnerships.
The state under pressure
Haiti was preparing to hold general elections for the first time in more than a decade. The country hasn’t had a president since President Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021, and violence has surged since then.
“Elections act as accelerators,” said Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. “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.”
Most Haitians don’t report abductions of loved ones because they fear reprisals, higher ransoms or disrupting negotiations with kidnappers. In mid-September, attorney Dorime Boulos held a press conference to announce a fundraiser to help free Jean-Baptiste. “We don’t have the amount they’re asking for,” he said, declining to reveal the ransom demanded. Boulos called for dialogue and said: “We are condemned to live here. We don’t have another society or spare country.”
A security response with international backing
At a meeting during the recent U.N. General Assembly, Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said restoring security was a top priority. He said Haiti was training 4,000 new police officers in 2026, another 1,500 soldiers had completed training, and the country planned a total of 15,000 new soldiers 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, a U.N. Security Council meeting renewed the mandate of a U.N.-backed gang suppression force. The force had almost 1,600 personnel, and its size would likely double soon, said Daniela Kroslak, assistant secretary-general and head of mission of the U.N. Support Office in Haiti. “Over the next three months, this will all pick up quite considerably,” she told The Associated Press. She said the international community’s formula for confronting the crisis should yield the result Haitians “want and need and deserve.”
Violence reaches communities and civilians
Mass kidnappings began around 2020, when 234 cases were reported, a 200% increase from the 78 abductions reported in 2019, according to the U.N. Reported kidnappings rose to 655 in 2021, 1,359 in 2022 and 2,490 in 2023. At least 2,058 people were reported kidnapped in 2024. In 2025, reported kidnappings fell nearly 40% to 1,268, but many abductions went unreported, and the actual number was believed to be much higher.
This summer, gangs attacked Kenscoff, a farming community near Port-au-Prince that had once been peaceful. They killed at least 164 people and kidnapped more than 70 others. The gangs later released six children and seven women; the rest remained captive. Le Cour called the outcome “a very concerning precedent.”
In the waning days of September, gangs in Petite-Rivière held hundreds of civilians hostage for two days 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 AP. “The state needs to take more action.”
Le Cour said criminal groups used official or cloned police uniforms, vehicles and license plates to carry out abductions, and noted allegations that some law enforcement agents were involved. “It takes intelligence to kidnap high-level targets, and that intelligence usually comes from collusion,” he said. He added that high-value abductions can send a political message, bring a larger ransom and help protect gang territory. “No one is out of reach,” Le Cour said. “These kidnappings send a message: the police cannot protect the population, and the state itself is vulnerable.”