A 3-year-old child and seven staff members at an orphanage in Haiti were kidnapped on Sunday about 25 miles from Port-au-Prince, the capital.
The orphanage is part of the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos network, known as N.P.H., a web of orphanages, hospitals and educational programs for children in Latin America and the Caribbean, founded by a Catholic priest.
The abductees, including a longtime Irish missionary, Gena Heraty, who directs care for children with special needs, were taken from St. Hélène Foyer, the organization’s main Haitian children’s home, in Kenscoff, south of the capital.
Local news media reported that the kidnapping took place in the early hours of Sunday and that Ms. Heraty had been allowed to call and confirm later in the day that she and others had been taken. No ransom demand had reportedly been made at that point.
The orphanage serves about 270 children, including some with disabilities. “This attack has struck at the heart of our mission: to protect children, care for the most vulnerable and serve with dignity, justice and love,” the N.P.H. said in a statement.
N.P.H. is one of the country’s best known and trusted charities. It also runs the only free pediatric hospital in the capital, in territory controlled by a gang coalition that has taken over large parts of Port-au-Prince since launching a coordinated offensive against the government in March last year.
The organization did not provide details about the kidnapping on Sunday, referring to it only as “an act of violence” and a “serious security incident.” It said that it was working with the local authorities to secure the safe release of all eight abductees.
All of N.P.H.’s institutions in Haiti, including its children’s hospitals, temporarily closed on Monday “in protest and to ensure the safety of our remaining children and staff,” the organization said.
N.P.H. International, a global arm of the group, said in a separate statement on Monday that it was withholding details about the abductions, as is common in kidnapping cases, “given the evolving nature of this incident.”
The statement noted that Ms. Heraty, an Irish national who is the director of N.P.H.’s special needs programs in Haiti and has been working in the country for several decades, was among the eight kidnapped.
Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Harris, called the kidnapping of Ms. Heraty “deeply worrying” in a statement on Monday, and said that he was in close contact with her family, the organization she works for and the authorities in Haiti.
“She has dedicated her life to supporting the most vulnerable people in Haiti, and it is imperative that she is released immediately,” Mr. Harris said.
Ms. Heraty’s relatives said in a statement on Monday that they were “absolutely devastated” by the kidnapping.
Kidnappings in Haiti have been increasingly common as the country is engulfed in gang-fueled violence and armed groups use abductions with ransom demands to help fund their other illicit activities. Five employees of UNICEF, the United Nation’s children’s organization, were held by a gang for three weeks in Haiti and released late last month; it was not clear if a ransom had been paid for their release.
In the first half of this year, there were at least 185 kidnappings in Haiti, according to U.N. data. The United Nations said 1,494 people were abducted in 2024, a year in which there was a major surge in gang violence.
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti issued an alert on Monday warning of “heavy gunfire” reported near its building in the capital, noting that “government personnel have paused all official movement outside the embassy compound.”