A recent Haitian police-led operation to reclaim a rural area in the hills above Port-au-Prince where a critical telecommunications hub was being held by a terrorizing gang leader, and hundreds of orphaned children were being blocked from leaving, started as a covert high-stakes mission.

By the time the daring middle-of-the-night secret raid in the rugged once-peaceful mountains of Kenscoff had concluded, the government had not only again controlled of an antenna vital to air traffic and internet connections but more than 200 orphaned children had been evacuated to safety.

It was a rare police victory in a country where the battle to push back armed gangs has been marked by failures and tragedy. Already this year, at least 31 security personnel, including members of the Kenyan-led international force, have been killed in operations against gangs. On Sunday, a Kenyan police officer lost his life and eight other members of the Multinational Security Support mission were injured when a MaxPro armored vehicle overturned and another one hit a wall during a towing operation.

The recent raid, according to two police sources privy to the operation, began on the night of Aug. 24 and was kept secret as plans were being made to move the children and retake the area. Launched by Haiti’s new police chief, André Jonas Vladimir Paraison, it hinged on surprise and teamwork, two elements that had long been lacking in the fight against Haiti’s kidnapping and extorting armed gangs.

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The operation involved specialized Haiti National Police units, including SWAT officers, who were joined by about a dozen members of the Kenya-led mission to make up a strike force. Also in the mix were members of the fledgling Haitian Army, and a group of foreign contractors operating explosive drones. Hired by former Blackwater founder Erik Prince, the contractors are part of a gang task force operating out of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé’s office.

The security personnel were divided into two teams. The strike force waited in armored vehicles at a staging area in Kenscoff, where a once peaceful region has been under gang attacks since the beginning of the year. The other team made up of a few Haitian police officers and the drone-operating contractors set off on foot under the cover of darkness to reach their target, the hilltop Téléco communications site.

Outfitted with night-vision thermal googles and other “sophisticated tools,” the team trekked through the dense pine forest on foot with the drones, said one of the cops. They finally made it to the site after three hours. There, armed men under the leadership of a gang leader known as “Didi” were holding the site hostage after he threatened on video to burn the antenna.

After taking the unsuspecting gang members by surprise, police and task force members then engaged in a firefight, said the police source.

“Once they did the assault, they were able to take over the Téléco area,” the officer said. “The whole objective was for us to take over the Téléco area without the gang knowing because we didn’t want them destroying that area if they saw us coming.”

After the facility was secured, a signal was sent to the strike force to begin moving barricades to consolidate the operation. It was only then that officers stationed in Kenscoff were made aware that a police operation was underway. Leaked intel and information about planned operations have long been a weakness inside the Haiti National Police, due to the allegations of corruption and collusion of some police officers with criminal gangs.

To fully achieve its goal, the mission also had to evacuate the nearby Saint Hélène Home, where 244 orphaned children, including 58 disabled children, had been trapped by the surrounding gang violence, threats and kidnappings. On April 3, the orphanage’s longtime director, Irish missionary Gena Heraty, and seven others, including a 3-year-old boy, were taken by gunpoint by “Didi’s” gang members. Though most had been freed, Heraty and another employee remained in captivity not far from where the operation was taking place.

To successfully retake the area and maintain control, police would need to evacuate the orphanage, whose plans to relocate the children after the abduction had been blocked by threats from the gang. With police now occupying the area and snipers on a house already damaged by drones along the “Téléco” road, security forces began the evacuation that Monday morning. All of the children were safely moved, and their director and the employee would be freed days later.

At least four gang members were killed in the assault, Kenscoff Mayor Jean Massillon would later report.

Haiti National Police Spokesman Michel-Ange Louis Jeune called the operation a major victory. During a press conference alongside his MSS counterpart, Kenyan Police Commissioner Jack Ombaka, Louis Jeune described the raid as a “large-scale operation” carried out jointly by specialized anti-gang units of the Haitian police, MSS police officers and other authorities working in Haiti’s security chain.

They were successful “after several hours,” he would only say as he declined to provide details on the inner workings of the plan that unfolded on Aug. 24 and Aug. 25.

In addition to several bandits being “neutralized,” weapons, ammunition and equipment were also seized, Louis Jeune said. This included 1,524 rounds of assorted ammunition, along with three grenades. Police also seized six assault rifles of various calibers with erased serial numbers to prevent traceability. The guns included a Kalashnikov AK-47, three modified M16 rifles, one U.S. manufactured M4 Bushmaster and an Israeli-manufactured Galil AC-22, which belonged to the Haitian police and is now the subject of an investigation.

Images of the weapons, laid out on a table during the press conference, also show a weapon that resembles a rifle-fired grenade. Police did not respond to journalists' questions about the item, but a security expert said it looks like grenades that were once in the possession of the former Haitian Armed Forces, which used them with their Galil rifles. Others have theorized that it’s a rifle-launched gas grenade. Either way, it shows the artillery gangs have continued to acquire to sow terror.

Among those to take note of the recent success is the head of the United Nations, António Guterres. He highlighted the operation during a briefing before the Security Council last Thursday as he continued to decry the violence that is “paralyzing daily life and forcing families to flee” as it continues to engulf Port-au-Prince and spread beyond the Haitian capital.

“Basic services have collapsed. Mass displacement has left children without education, health care, or safety,” he said. “As of April, gang violence had interrupted the schooling of 243,000 students.”

With rule of law collapsing, civilians under siege and the response to the crisis remaining underfunded, there were “emerging signals of hope,” the U.N. chief said.

“We are ... seeing closer coordination between the prime minister’s task force, the Haitian national police and the Multinational Security Support mission — improving operations on the ground,” he told the Security Council.

He stressed the importance of maintaining the fight against gangs even as the political terrain remains fragile.

“These fragile gains must be protected and expanded,” Guterres said.

Louis Jeune, the Haitian police spokesman, said the reclaiming of the Téléco site by the security forces “sends a strong message,” from the force’s new chief and Kenyan MSS Force Commander Godfrey Otunge that the reign of gangs’ “impunity is on the road to coming to an end.”

‘”The determination these two commanders have and the political will to deploy their troops in all of the spaces ... and strongholds of gangs, we can say this serves as an example,” Louis Jeune said.

The raid was the first major operation for Paraison, the former national palace security chief whose appointment at the helm of Haiti’s beleaguered police force has been met with both praise and controversy due to his track record within the police, which include a leading role in the creation of the once highly criticized Departmental Brigade of Operations and Interventions, BOID, specialized crime fighting police unit. Paraison was appointed last month by the transitional government to replace Rameau Normil, whose second turn as director general of the Haitian police was marked by tensions with Fils-Aimé, the prime minister, and gang expansion into areas not previously under the control of armed groups, including Kenscoff.

Under Normil’s leadership, Haiti would see the fall of 18 neighborhoods and areas to armed gangs that joined forces in February of 2024 as an alliance, known as Viv Ansanm, with the goal of toppling the government.

In May, the Trump administration designated Viv Ansanm as a foreign and global terrorist organization responsible for mass killings, kidnappings, rapes and the displacement of more than 1.3 million Haitians. They continue to sow chaos and now control 90% of Port-au-Prince.

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