The chief of staff of the Ministry of Education of Haiti, Ecclésiaste Télémaque, has been kidnapped by a criminal gang, in a new episode of the spiral of violence that has plagued the country for years. Following the assassination of former president Jovenel Moise in 2021 and the subsequent offensive by armed groups, the main enclaves of Haiti, especially in Port-au-Prince, have been practically under the control of the mafias.
The family of Télémaque has confirmed the kidnapping to the broadcaster Radio Télé Métronome, although without providing hardly any additional information. The senior official of the Ministry of Education was intercepted on Thursday night in the Delmas 31 neighborhood, in the capital, when he was heading home, and since then his whereabouts have been unknown.
So far, neither the Haitian government nor the National Police have offered an official version of what happened. However, sources from the Ministry of Education, who have requested to remain anonymous, have confirmed the kidnapping to the newspaper "Le Facteur". "He was with us in the office all day. Unfortunately, we already know what happened to him afterward," these sources have indicated.
Meanwhile, the case of another high-profile kidnapping remains unresolved: that of the chief inspector of the National Police and chief of staff of the Ministry of Defense, James Boyard, captured along with his family on June 11. The kidnapping is allegedly attributed to the Ti Bwa gang, led by Christ-Roi Chéry, alias "Chrisla".
The security situation in Haiti remains bleak five years after the assassination of Moise. Data from the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) indicate that, just in the first quarter of 2026 (January-March), violence caused at least 1,642 deaths and 745 injuries, in a context marked by massacres such as the one recorded between March 29 and 31 in 16 localities of Lower Artibonite, where 83 people were killed in just 72 hours.