Circuit Wire — a daily news update from the Circuit.
Kidnappings for ransom in Haiti rose 68% to 137 victims between July and September, the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) said in its quarterly human rights report released on Wednesday. Port-au-Prince accounted for 92 of those victims, up from 51 in the previous quarter.
Most of the abductions in the capital took place on Delmas Road and Airport Road, according to the report. Children made up 10% of all kidnapping victims. The Artibonite department accounted for 30% of cases, with smaller shares in the Centre and North.
The report also recorded mass hostage-taking. The Village de Dieu gang held about 52 people in Kenscoff, and the Palmiste gang seized more than 100 street vendors and drivers in Gros-Morne. Village de Dieu attacked Kenscoff on August 23, killing at least 47 residents.
Overall casualties fell during the quarter. BINUH documented 1,167 people killed and 459 injured, down from 1,408 killed and 656 injured between April and June. Reuters reported that gangs and security forces were responsible for almost all of those casualties, with self-defense groups and unorganized residents accounting for about 5%.
The Port-au-Prince metropolitan area accounted for 85% of all casualties. Violence rose sharply in Carrefour and Gressier, where victims nearly doubled from 90 to 176. Gangs that had been pushed out of some capital neighborhoods earlier in 2026 also returned.
The office documented at least 344 victims of sexual violence by gangs during the quarter. It also recorded 44 cases of extrajudicial executions or attempted executions by police, up from 14 in the previous quarter.
Year to date, kidnappings stand at 275 for January through September, compared with 491 over the same period in 2025.
The report lands during an intensified security campaign. On Sunday, Haitian police supported by Salvadoran troops struck a site in Croix-des-Bouquets linked to the 400 Mawozo gang, in an operation that reportedly killed 20 people, Al Jazeera reported. El Salvador has sent some 2,000 troops to Haiti since four Salvadoran personnel went missing after an October 18 ambush. Most of those troops sit outside the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force.
BINUH urged the government to investigate mass crimes, sexual violence and financial crimes, and to keep operations against gangs "in full compliance with international human rights law." Haiti plans to hold elections next year, its first in more than a decade.
Want a weekly roundup of the major stories shaping the security industry? The On The Circuit newsletter is read by more than 12,000 protection professionals.
Spotted something we should cover? Send tips and feedback via circuit-magazine.com.