By Djinodji Solmengar Rodrigue
Three Chad-born children have reunited with their mother after nine years of captivity in Haiti, according to their family.
Relatives shared the news during a press conference on October 23 at the family home in Moursal, N’Djamena.
The family identified the children as Raïssa Sikhumbuzo Vundla, 19, Isabelle Sikhumbuzo Vundla, 16, and Kassiré Sikhumbuzo Vundla, 14. They accused the children’s father, Sikhumbuzo Vundla, a Zimbabwean national, of keeping them in confinement in Haiti since April 2017.
According to the family, the children spent seven years out of school during that period.
Teenager’s escape led to police intervention
The case took a turn on March 26, 2026. One of the children, Isabelle, then 16, escaped and alerted Haitian police. Authorities arrested her father, according to the family’s account.
The family said the children later received protection from Chadian troops deployed in Haiti as part of an international security mission. The children reunited with their mother, Hawa Kassiré Coumakoye, in New York on October 14, relatives said.
The father remains in custody in Haiti, where he faces allegations of attempted murder and arms trafficking.
Family thanks Chadian authorities
The family expressed gratitude to President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno for his support. Relatives also thanked Chadian troops in Haiti, Interpol officials in Chad and Haiti, the children’s mother’s lawyers, the US Consul in Haiti and the US State Department.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Isabelle Housna Kassiré Coumakoye called for both divine and human justice over what she described as “horrific acts.”