Notorious Haiti gang kidnaps US missionary group, children
- Children among 16 US citizens and Canadian kidnapped in Haiti
- Abduction blamed on notorious Haitian gang called 400 Mawozo
US officials were working with Haitian authorities to try to secure the release of 12 adults and five children with a US-based missionary group who were abducted over the weekend by a gang notorious for killings, kidnappings and extortion.
The group was snatched by the 400 Mawozo gang, which controls the Croix-des-Bouquets area east of the capital of Port-au-Prince, police inspector Frantz Champagne said on Sunday. The abduction happened Saturday in the community of Ganthier, which lies in the gang’s area. It was blamed for the kidnapping of five priests and two nuns earlier this year.
As authorities sought the release of the 16 Americans and one Canadian with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, local unions and other organisations were expected to launch a strike Monday to protest Haiti’s worsening lack of security.
The Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation was again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished in recent months, after President Jovenel Moise was fatally shot at his private residence on July 7 and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in August.
The kidnapping of the missionaries came just days after high-level US officials visited Haiti and promised more resources for Haiti’s National Police, including another US$15 million to help reduce gang violence, which this year has displaced thousands of Haitians who now live in temporary shelters in increasingly unhygienic conditions.
