Gang abducts 15 American missionaries and families

About 15 American missionaries and family members were kidnapped Saturday by a gang outside the Haitian capital, a local security source told AFP.

The group of between 15 and 17 people, including children, were being held by an armed gang that for months has been engaged in theft and kidnappings in the area between Portau- Prince and the border with the Dominican Republic, the source said.

The “400 Mawozo” gang has hijacked several vehicles on the roads it controls, kidnapping American citizens and an undetermined number of Haitian citizens.

A spokesperson for the US government said it was aware of the reports but declined to provide any information.

The missionaries and their families were returning from a visit to an orphanage about 30 kilometers east of Port- auPrince, a security source told AFP.

In April, 10 people were kidnapped by 400 Mawozo in the same region, including two French Catholic clergy members.

One member of that group, Michel Briand – who was released after 20 days – told AFP that they had “been in the wrong place at the wrong time,” believing that the gang members had not planned their abduction.

Armed gangs, which for years have controlled the poorest districts of the Haitian capital, have extended their hold to other parts of Port- au- Prince and its surroundings, sowing terror with kidnappings.

More than 600 kidnappings were recorded in the first three quarters of 2021, compared with 231 over the same period in 2020, according to the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, a civil society group based in Port- au- Prince.