These two religious, who found themselves for nearly three weeks in the hands of Haitian kidnappers with eight other people, agreed to tell their ordeal to AFP.
Sister Agnès Bordeau, 80, and Father Briand, 67, do not hold responsible those who kidnapped them with their Haitian colleagues, but denounce the inaction of the authorities of the poorest country in the Caribbean.
“I took the risk of going out that day with the fathers although the French Embassy sends us a lot of messages telling us
Don't take the risk
, all that…”, testifies Sister Agnès Bordeau, in Haiti since 2019 after decades in Central America.
On April 11, fifteen armed men blocked a national road on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince: the 80-year-old nun, Father Briand and eight other people going to the ordination of a priest were ransomed and then kidnapped.
"They will kill us and then they will burn us"
"We found ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time," regrets Father Briand, gray hair tied in a ponytail, his voice calm, believing that the members of the gang had not planned their kidnapping.
Missionary in the Caribbean country since 1986, the religious speaks fluent Creole and was able to interact with the members of the armed band who have him and nine other people kidnapped from April 11 to 30.
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He remembers how, during the first few minutes "they didn't know where to put us".
Boxes thrown to the ground in the middle of nature will be their first place of captivity for five days.
“As I entered the forest, I saw a fire.
I thought
Oh that's it, they are going to kill us and then they are going to burn us
, ”says Sister Agnès.
"Very quickly too, I heard the blows of a pickaxe, I said to myself:
Okay, they are in the process of making a mass grave and they are going to throw us there and kill us
", remembers Sister Agnès who, afterwards, laughed widely at his dark thoughts.
No anger against their captors
The changes of places of sequestration will always have given him both hope of release and fear of execution, but never during their captivity, French and Haitian clerics will not have been attacked.
"The third place was the most terrible because it was unsanitary, really very small and they reduced our food", calmly recounts the French nun.
“We had a meat pie around 3 pm, a bottle of water and that was it for the day.
"
Without knowing the details allowing, in the middle of the night of April 30, their release against which the gang demanded a million dollars, the two French do not show any anger against their captors.
"I do not blame them and I would even say that they are not responsible", judge Sister Agnès Bordeau.
“I pray a lot for them, so that they can come out of this hell where they live,” she sighs, clutching her hands on her knees.
"They told us that clearly, that they fall back on thefts or, as the case which led to us, kidnappings to support all those who work with them and to buy weapons", abounds the Father Briand, who has absolutely no plans to leave the country.
"Let us ask that the public authorities can act"
Undermined by extreme poverty, Haiti has seen a growing rise in gang power in poor neighborhoods overlooked by meager public investment.
In recent months, this stranglehold on the territory has increased and materialized on a daily basis by the upsurge in kidnappings for ransom, affecting both the wealthy minority and residents living below the poverty line.
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The religious is careful not to mention the names of politicians but he does not hide his fatigue in the face of inaction by the State.
"Let us ask that the public authorities can act and not speak: it is useless to speak again, what is necessary is to act for the good of the people", pleads the priest.
“These elected officials encouraged this phenomenon of gangs: is it to protect themselves? I don't know, ”the 67-year-old man cautiously testifies, gradually enjoying his new-found freedom, taking back for the first time on Saturday the wheel of his pick-up through the streets of Port-au-Prince. "It is not because you have had bullying by some Haitian people that it is all the people who bully you", pleads the religious who considers that his departure from the island would be "a betrayal".