Civilian leader helps free Haiti’s Kenscoff hostages with UNICEF support as questions grow over police response 

PORT-AU-PRINCE — A Haitian community leader entered a gang-controlled area of Kenscoff on Aug. 28 and helped secure the release of 13 people abducted during a deadly attack, including six children and seven women, with support from UNICEF.

The release has prompted renewed questions about the government’s ability to protect civilians from armed groups, particularly after a civilian intermediary was able to enter gang territory to retrieve hostages.

Luckson Jean, known as Frè Luckson, leads the nonprofit Fondation Frè Luckson Zòn Pa Fè Moun (FLZPFM). In a video posted on social media, he said he entered the gang stronghold after learning that children were among those being held.

Jean said the hostages were released without a ransom and credited UNICEF and other community-based organizations with supporting the negotiations.

“I thank God that the mission was successful despite the great risks I took to help save the lives of these innocent children,” Jean told journalist Rudy Sanon on the Team Rudy YouTube show.

Jean said organizations including Haiti’s Social Welfare and Research Institute (IBERS), with UNICEF’s support, participated in negotiations. He said gang members told negotiators they would trust only him to retrieve the children.

UNICEF said in a statement that six children and seven women had been released after several days in captivity. The children included three babies younger than two, a 7-year-old and two teenagers.

Other accounts, including Jean’s, put the number released at about 19. UNICEF’s figure of 13 is the confirmed number.

“This release offers a rare moment of hope amid the violence threatening children in Haiti,” said UNICEF deputy representative in Haiti, Yannig Dussart.

 “The Kenscoff abduction was not an isolated incident but another stark reminder of the scale and frequency of attacks on children across the country,” the official added.

A civilian intervention raises questions

The intervention video shows Jean, founder and CEO of FLZPFM, holding a young girl while seated beside a masked, armed man. The man identifies himself as Didi—leader of the Izo #2 gang—referring to Johnson “Izo” André, who leads the notorious 5 Segond network.

The circumstances of the release have fueled debate in Haiti and among Haitians abroad over why a civilian leader could enter an armed group’s territory while residents continue to question the state’s ability to prevent kidnappings and attacks.

Those questions intensified after residents of Kenscoff protested Aug. 26, calling for an end to gang control, the return of displaced residents and justice for victims.

The protest followed an overnight Aug. 23-24 attack in which at least 47 people were killed and more than 50 kidnapped, according to the United Nations. Five of those killed were children, and 22 people were reportedly executed at a church compound where residents had sought shelter. Local reports said that as many as 100 people may have been massacred by the gangs during the bloodbath. 

Some social media posts have questioned whether the government has a strategy to protect civilians. Many claims that officials were complicit in creating an atmosphere of fear around the December elections have not been independently substantiated.

Police face scrutiny after deadly attack

The Haitian National Police (PNH) has faced mounting criticism over its response to the Kenscoff attack. People also questioned the presence of the U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) and Erik Prince’s Vectus Global forces, linked to a $52 million-a-year mercenary contract. 

Police Director Vladimir Paraison ordered an investigation into whether negligence or complicity contributed to the attack and ordered additional specialized units to the area. Police also announced a new command structure for the commune.

The debate comes as Haiti’s security forces confront heavily armed gangs with limited numbers of trained personnel.

Lt. Gen. Derby Guerrier, commander of the remobilized Haitian Armed Forces (FAd’H), said gang members are often heavily armed and in some cases better equipped than government forces.

“Haiti is facing heavily fortified armed groups,” Guerrier said during a Defense Ministry forum on the future of the army. “The biggest problem currently facing the police and the army is that we are up against gang members who are well armed, and sometimes even better armed than our security forces.”

International Crisis Group analyst Diego Da Rin has pointed to another constraint: the limited number of trained and properly equipped police officers available for direct combat with gangs.

“The shortage of police personnel is one of the main obstacles preventing the police from anticipating and taking concrete action when there is reliable intelligence about planned gang attacks,” Da Rin said.

He said the police’s specialized units were generally designed for civilian law enforcement rather than urban warfare and called for better coordination among the different security forces operating in Haiti.

A former United States chargé d’affaires in Haiti, Henry Wooster, told the U.S. Senate in February that Haiti’s crisis involved a coalition of about 20 armed groups and an estimated 12,000 gang members, with roughly 3,000 considered the greatest threat. He said the PNH had about 6,000 officers on its payroll, but at most 400 were doing most of the fighting.

Police union official’s view

Meleck Pierre, deputy spokesman for the police union SYNAPOHA, said the security forces remain constrained by resources and political support.

“Without the political will to pull the country out of this crisis, bringing in more forces will not solve the problem,” Pierre told The Haitian Times. “Haitian security forces can deliver results, but they need stronger support and commitment from the authorities.”

Pierre said that although he could not estimate the number of PNH officers, the institution has more than enough capability to fight the gangs, echoing an Aug. 26 editorial by Frantz Duval, Le Nouvelliste’s editor-in-chief.

Duval asked how law enforcement institutions with such significant resources could remain so ineffective, noting that the PNH and the reconstituted FAd’H have never had as many personnel, weapons, vehicles and budgetary resources as they have had over the past five years.

“Yet defeats and missed opportunities continue to mount,” he said. “Over the past five years, our security forces have been unable to improve their tactics or to strengthen their capabilities and equipment.”

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