Haiti: Kidnapped North American missionaries call for help

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Security forces in Haiti (at the weekend / symbol image)

Photo: Joseph Odelyn / AP

The kidnapping drama in Haiti continues.

The focus is on twelve North American missionaries, their children - and an armed gang that repeatedly abducts people in the island nation.

According to information from Haitian security circles, the gang called "400 Mawozo" took control of the 17-strong group near Port-au-Prince on Saturday.

According to the Christian Aid Ministries from the US state of Ohio, the abductees are five men, seven women and five children.

16 of them are US citizens, one is Canadian.

As reported by the Washington Post, one of the kidnapping victims sent a desperate call for help via WhatsApp.

“We're being held hostage, they kidnapped our driver.

We don't know where they're taking us, ”the message said.

"Please pray for us!"

Numerous civil society organizations in the Caribbean country recently called for his immediate release.

The situation of those affected is "diametrically opposed to human dignity," criticized the head of the Center for the Analysis and Research of Human Rights in Port-au-Prince, Gedeon Jean, on Sunday.

The act occurred after the US missionaries left an orphanage, it said.

They were abducted from a bus that was on its way to the airport.

Some members of the Christian group wanted to be dropped there before the rest of the group wanted to continue to another destination in Haiti, the New York Times reported, citing local officials.

Again and again kidnappings and robberies

According to various media outlets, the US government is in contact with the authorities and other agencies in Haiti to secure the release.

According to a report from CNN on Sunday evening (local time), the US authorities do not currently know where the abductees are either.

The Haitian security circles said that "400 Mawozo" had already committed several kidnappings and robberies in the region between Port-au-Prince and the border with the Dominican Republic in the past few months.

The group controls several roads in the region.

"400 Mawozo", roughly translated as "400 beginners", kidnapped both Haitians and foreign nationals and demanded high ransom payments.

Haiti is currently in a deep political and economic crisis.

In July, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in the poor Caribbean country.

A severe earthquake struck the south-west of the country in August.

130,000 houses were destroyed and more than 2,200 people died.

Gang crime is a growing problem

Armed gangs are adding to the insecurity in Haiti.

According to the Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research, based in Port-au-Prince, more than 600 abduction cases were recorded between January and September this year, compared to 231 in the same period last year.

The gangs are demanding ransom payments, some of which exceed a million dollars.

The vast majority of women abducted by criminal groups are sexually abused, as denounced by human rights organizations.

The US government issued a category four travel warning to Haiti in August.

US citizens were called on not to travel to the country because of the danger of "kidnappings, crime, civil unrest and Covid-19".

jok / AFP