port-au-prince, haitiAP —
Six children and seven women have been freed from a gang that kidnapped more than 50 people in Haiti in a deadly attack on a community near the capital Port-au-Prince about a week ago, UNICEF said.
The United Nations children’s agency said late Friday that those released included three children under the age of two, one child aged seven and two teenage girls.
“This announcement provides a rare moment of hope in the midst of the violence that threatens Haiti’s children,” said Yanig Dussert, UNICEF’s deputy director in Haiti. “Kenskov’s kidnapping is not an isolated incident, but a stark reminder of the scale and frequency of attacks on children across the country.”
UNICEF said it was working with local leaders to secure the release of women and children. It was not immediately clear whether they needed medical treatment or whether there were more women and children in custody.
While individual kidnappings are common in Haiti, mass kidnappings are even rarer. Results vary. Some are released without ransom, while others are killed despite multiple ransoms being paid.
Gangs killed at least 47 people in a late Sunday attack on Kenskov, a once-peaceful rural area nestled in the hills above Haiti’s capital.
The leader of the gang, known as Izo 2, had threatened to execute all the hostages if they killed any of the gang members as police worked to secure Kenskoff. Izzo 2 leads armed groups in the area on behalf of other gang leaders, including Izzo, who is considered one of the most powerful gang leaders in Haiti.
The latest attacks prompted protests at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, calling for the rapid deployment of a new UN-backed anti-gang unit and action to rein in lawless groups.
Diplomats attending a meeting convened by the United States, Panama and Colombia expressed horror at the brutal attack.
Louis-Louis Mathieu, the UN special envoy to Haiti, said the attack had triggered “a new wave of public outrage, not only among our international partners, but in all sectors of Haitian society.”
Louis Mathieu welcomed the decision by Haitian authorities to bring together the national police, armed forces and anti-gang forces to assess developments and coordinate plans. It was agreed that anti-gang units would strengthen their presence in Port-au-Prince and that the Haitian military would increase its presence in Kenskov.
However, the UN Special Envoy and a number of Council Presidents emphasized the urgent need to strengthen international security assistance to Haiti.
U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jennifer Rossetta said the United States is “determined and committed to supporting Haiti-led security efforts to end gang terrorism.”
She called on UN member states to provide equipment and resources for anti-gang forces to deploy as soon as possible, and to invest in jobs, infrastructure and other opportunities to provide alternatives to joining gangs.
Rochetta has publicly stated that a coalition of gangs is trying to prevent Haitian voters from electing their representatives in upcoming elections, noting that “terrorists” cannot be allowed to hold democracy hostage.
“They cannot commit acts of terrorism at the point of a rifle or from the comfort of a toll booth because they will rob Haiti of its future. We must protect civilians from these unconscionable acts,” she said.
Indrika Ratwatte, India’s deputy secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council that the Kenskov attack had forced more than 2,600 people to flee their homes, many for the second or third time. He said people were traumatized, searching for missing relatives and worried about the future.
Nearly 1.5 million people, or 12% of Haiti’s population, are internally displaced people, half of them children, he said.
“Meanwhile, deportations to Haiti continue on a large scale,” Ratwatte said, referring to expulsions from the Dominican Republic and the Trump administration’s efforts to expel Haitians who legally live and work in the United States, as well as those whose visas have expired or who entered the country illegally.
“About 200,000 people were deported in the first eight months of 2026, an increase of 10% compared to the same period last year,” he said, adding that many returned home empty-handed.
Describing violence against women, girls and children in particular as “shocking”, the UN’s humanitarian partners said “in the first six months of this year alone, more than 5,500 incidents of gender-based violence were recorded, or approximately 30 per day.”
