Kidnappings in Haiti are big business for gangs 2:46
(CNN) -
The leader of the 400 Mawozo gang that kidnapped 17 missionaries was seen in a video posted Thursday saying he will kill the hostages if he doesn't get what he demands.
The video was taken Wednesday at a funeral for gang members who he said were killed at the hands of the police, a source in the Haitian security forces told CNN.
The kidnappers gave proof of the life of the 17 kidnapped, according to sources from the Haitian security forces.
A spokesperson for Christian Aid Ministries declined to comment with CNN on the gang leader's comments.
The group that kidnapped 17 American and Canadian missionaries in Haiti asked for $ 1 million for the release of each, a senior Haitian official said Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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The 16 US citizens and a Canadian were abducted by the powerful "400 Mawozo" gang on Saturday after visiting an orphanage in Croix-des-Bouquets, a suburb northeast of the capital Port-au-Prince, authorities said over the weekend. .
Haitian Justice Minister Liszt Quitel said Monday that the missionaries were being held in a house on the outskirts of the suburb by the gang, which demanded a total of US $ 17 million for the group's release, the WSJ reported.
The kidnapped missionaries are affiliated with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, which confirmed the kidnapping Sunday in a statement, saying the kidnapped group consisted of five men, seven women and five children.
Quitel told The Wall Street Journal that the five kidnapped children included an 8-month-old baby and children 3, 6, 14 and 15 years old.
Dan Hooley, a former field director for Christian Aid Ministries in Haiti, told CNN on Sunday that the kidnapped missionaries are believed to have been in a vehicle, and that some were able to contact the organization's local director before they were taken away.
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"A couple of colleagues immediately texted the director and told him what was going on. And one of them was able to drop a pin, and that's the last (the organization) heard until the kidnappers contacted them later. that day, "Hooley said.
The incident is part of a wave of indiscriminate kidnappings that has grown more blatant as the country suffers from political instability, civil unrest, a lack of quality health care and extreme poverty.
Just before the kidnapping of the missionaries, a Haitian transport union had called an indefinite strike starting this Monday to protest the increase in kidnappings, among other issues.
AnneClaire Stapleton, Natalie Gallon of CNN in Port-au-Prince and David Shortell in Cleveland, Ohio, contributed to this report
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Haiti Kidnapping
