On Sunday, nine people, including Irish missionaries and three-year-old children, were kidnapped in an orphanage near the Haitian capital, officials said.
According to Mayor Massillon Jean, the facility’s director Gena Heraty was seized from the early hours of the morning from the privately run Sainte-Hélène Orphanage in Kenskov.
Seven employees and one child were also taken from the orphanage, which cared for more than 240 children, some of whom were disabled.
Jean said: “The attacker broke into the orphanage at 3:30 am (07:30 GMT) and did not fire.”
Jean said the attackers had broken into the wall and entered the property before heading to the building where Ms. Herati stayed.
According to Haitian newspaper La Nouvelliste, members of the gang are believed to be the cause of the attack.
Ms. Herati has lived in Haiti since 1993 and said the organization that runs the orphanage – our little siblings – was confirmed earlier Sunday as the kidnapped organization.
Sources said no request or ransom request has been made.
The Irish Foreign Ministry said this was awareness of the case and was providing consular assistance.
Born in Liscarney, Mayo County, Ms. Herati has received numerous awards for her humanitarian work, including the Oireachtas Human Dignity Award.
She had previously told the Irish Times that she had no intention of leaving Haiti despite gang violence and threatening her safety.
“The kids are why I’m still here. We’re together,” she told the newspaper in 2022.
Kenscoff Muncume, in the southern suburb of the port, has been one of the city’s areas since early 2025, suffered constant invasion and attacks by Haitian criminal gangs that have controlled much of the capital and most of the country.
Haitian police, along with their Kenyan police allies and foreign contractors, used weapons drones, repeatedly tried to free the gang from their locations and bases, but failed to push them back.
Gang violence and kidnapping are also common in and around Port-au-Prince, where armed UN groups control about 85% of cities.
On 7 July, six UNICEF employees were kidnapped in authorized missions in areas controlled by armed groups. Although one employee was released the next day, five other employees were captured by a gang for three weeks until the end of the month.
In the first half of 2025, UN figures showed that nearly 350 people were kidnapped in Haiti. The UN Human Rights Office said at least 3,141 people were killed during the same period.
Volker Türk, the head of human rights at the UN, warned that the surge in gang violence is threatening to further undermine the country, with the disease having a record 1.3 million people as of June.
The United Nations has said that families “struggle to survive in temporary shelters while facing health and protection risks.”
