About fifteen American missionaries were kidnapped at midday on Saturday by a gang in a peri-urban area east of Port-au-Prince, a Haitian security source said. Between 15 and 17 American citizens – missionaries and their families – are in the hands of the armed gang which, for months, has been increasing villainous kidnappings and thefts in the area between the Haitian capital and the border with the Dominican Republic, said this source which was not able to specify, Saturday evening, if a demand for ransom had been issued.
“The well-being and safety of American citizens abroad is one of our top priorities at the State Department. We are aware of this information and have nothing to add at this time, ”commented a spokesperson for the US government. On the morning of Saturday, the gang called “400 mawozo” hijacked several vehicles from the highways they control, kidnapping American citizens as well as an as yet unknown number of Haitian citizens.
Ten French clerics kidnapped in the same region in April
The missionaries and their families were returning from a visit to an orphanage located about 30 kilometers east of the Haitian capital, a security source reported. For some of these members of the Ohio-based religious organization, this is their first trip to Haiti. In April, ten people including two French religious were kidnapped by this gang in the same region. Released after twenty days of captivity, Father Michel Briand had explained that they had “been in the wrong place at the wrong time”, believing that the members of the gang had at the time not planned their kidnapping.
The armed bands, which for years have controlled the poorest districts of the Haitian capital, have extended their power to Port-au-Prince and its surroundings where they are increasing the number of villainous kidnappings. More than 600 cases were recorded in the first three quarters of 2021 against 231 in the same period in 2020, according to the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, based in the Haitian capital. Demanding ransoms sometimes exceeding a million dollars, gangs do not hesitate to demand decades of wages from the families of their victims living below the poverty line.
A strike against the climate of insecurity
The vast majority of women kidnapped by criminal gangs are sexually abused and victims of gang rape, deplore human rights organizations which denounce the inaction of the Haitian police. Before the kidnappings were committed on Saturday, professional associations and businesses in Port-au-Prince had already called for an indefinite strike from Monday, to protest against the climate of growing insecurity.
For years, a deep political crisis has paralyzed the socio-economic development of Haiti. The assassination on July 7 of President Jovenel Moïse by an armed commando in his private residence further plunged the Caribbean country into uncertainty.
