Haiti struggles with rise in kidnappings as general election looms

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Kidnappings are on the rise in Haiti , with gangs increasingly targeting high-profile people and launching mass abductions as the country pushes to hold long-awaited presidential elections .

At least 81 people were reported kidnapped between April and June alone, a 42% increase compared with the first quarter of the year, according to U.N. statistics. Those abducted include James Boyard, police inspector general and cabinet director of Haiti’s Defense Ministry. He was kidnapped during broad daylight in June from Bourdon, a Port-au-Prince neighborhood considered relatively safe. He has not been released.

Also kidnapped are well-known attorney Caleb Jean-Baptiste and Stéphanie Paultre, director general of Haiti’s National Office for Educational Partnerships, according to local media reports.

The kidnappings come as Haiti prepares 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 only 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 do not report abductions of loved ones because they fear reprisals, higher ransoms or disrupting ongoing negotiations with kidnappers.

But in a rare move, 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,” he said, declining to reveal the ransom requested.

Boulos called for dialogue as he decried Haiti’s spiraling crises.

“We are condemned to live here,” he said. “We don’t have another society or spare country.”

Mass-scale kidnappings in Haiti began around 2020 with 234 cases reported that year, up 200% compared to the 78 abductions reported in 2019, according to the U.N.

In 2020, the abduction and killing of high school student Évelyne Sincère sparked large protests , with demonstrators demanding that the government take action.

In 2021, 655 kidnappings were reported , a 180% increase compared to the previous year.

“No social group was spared; among the victims were laborers, traders, religious leaders, professors, medical doctors, journalists, human rights defenders and foreign citizens,” according to a February 2022 U.N. report.

In 2022, reported kidnappings rose to 1,359 – more than double the previous year.

Kidnappings surged to 2,490 in 2023 , an 83% increase compared with the previous year, with a U.N. report noting that “gang members are increasingly resorting to wearing fake police uniforms to carry out kidnappings.”

In 2024, at least 2,058 people were reported kidnapped. That year, gangs at war with each other joined forces to target key government infrastructure, marking a new era of upheaval in Haiti’s chaotic history.

In 2025, kidnappings fell nearly 40% to 1,268 reported cases, but they’re on the rise again, and the actual number of abductions is believed to be much higher because many go unreported.

Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, speaking at a meeting during the recent U.N. General Assembly, said restoring security is a top priority.

He noted that 4,000 new police officers were being trained this year, with another 1,500 soldiers already completing training, for a total of 15,000 new soldiers in the next three years. In late September, Haiti's National Police also announced that nearly a dozen officers were 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.”

The mandate of a U.N.-backed gang suppression force was renewed Tuesday during a U.N. Security Council meeting. The force stands at almost 1,600 personnel, and the number will 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.

“We all hope, of course, that this formula the international community has put together to face the crisis in Haiti will yield the result that the Haitian people want and need and deserve.”

This summer, gangs descended on Kenscoff, a once peaceful farming community near Port-au-Prince. They killed at least 164 people and kidnapped more than 70 others , marking one of the largest mass kidnappings in recent years.

They have since released six children and seven women , but the rest remain captive “creating a very concerning precedent,” Le Cour said.

Then, in the waning days of September, gangs in the central town of 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 AP. “The state needs to take more action.”

Le Cour said a new wave of kidnappings has hit Haiti in the past six to eight months.

He said criminal groups are using official or cloned police uniforms, vehicles and license plates to carry out kidnappings, and he noted allegations that some law enforcement agents are involved.

“It takes intelligence to kidnap high-level targets, and that intelligence usually comes from collusion,” he said, adding that a high-value hostage sends a political message and means a larger ransom and protection for a gang’s territory against an offensive.

He said the wave of abductions is concentrated in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area: “Gangs are striking zones considered safe, at the core of Haiti’s political, economic and international presence.”

Le Cour noted that every major wave of kidnappings has followed a political rupture, including the fall of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 and the assassination of former President Moïse in 2021.

“No one is out of reach,” said Le Cour. “These kidnappings send a message: the police cannot protect the population, and the state itself is vulnerable.”

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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