Seventeen ‘men, women and children held as gang kidnaps missionaries in Haiti
A notorious gang known for mass kidnappings is believed to have abducted a group of 17 missionaries and family members – primarily Americans – in Haiti on Saturday.
The missionary group were said to be returning from a site visit to an orphanage.
The incident marks the latest in a wave of kidnappings to grip the Caribbean nation.
An audio recording of a ‘prayer alert’ issued from non-profit US-based Christian Aid Ministries said, “an armed gang was holding men, women and children”.
Those abducted included organisation staff and family members, according to the recording and a person familiar with the abduction.
Organisations that monitor kidnappings in Haiti said the missionaries were abducted by 400 Mawozo, a gang known for targeting religious groups. In recent months, members have increasingly engage in mass kidnappings involving bus and carloads of victims.
The gang in April kidnapped five priests and two nuns, including French nationals, in an incident that led Catholic universities and schools to close in protest.
Then-Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe resigned shortly afterwards, following a surge of other gang crimes – including a ruthless attack on an orphanage in which children were sexually assaulted.
Gédéon Jean, director of the Centre for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince, said he had received information from authorities that Saturday’s captives included 16 Americans and one Canadian citizen. A person familiar with the abduction, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there may have been two Haitian nationals also abducted.
“The modus operandi is they take entire car and buses,” Mr Jean said. “Then they ask for a price to release everybody.”
Christian Aid Ministries did not respond to a request for comment. According to the group’s website, US staff returned to its Haiti base in 2020 after nine months due to political unrest.
The person familiar with the matter said that one of the abducted Americans had posted a call for help in a WhatsApp group as the kidnapping was occurring.
“Please pray for us!! We are being held hostage; they kidnapped our driver. Pray, pray, pray. We don’t know where they are taking us,” the message read.
Several Haitian officials acknowledged reports were “circulating” but could not immediately confirm the kidnappings. Pierre Espérance, director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defence Network, said he had been told by officials in Haiti on Saturday that an unknown number of US missionaries had been kidnapped.
The US State Department said, “ We are aware of these reports and have nothing additional to offer at this time.”
Haiti has the highest per-capita kidnapping rate on Earth.
Recorded kidnappings so far this year have spiked six-fold over the same period last year, as criminals have caught doctors on their way to work, preachers delivering sermons, entire busloads of people in transit – even police on patrol.
The nation continues to reel from a power vacuum following President Jovenel Moïse in July and the August earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people and left tens of thousands of Haitians homeless across the southern part of the country.
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