Foreign media: 17 American missionaries and their families were kidnapped in Haiti, including 3 minors

Source: Global Times

On the 16th, the New York Times quoted officials from Haiti's security agencies as saying that 17 Christian missionaries from the United States and their families were kidnapped on the same day on the way out of an orphanage in the eastern part of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. CNN said it included 14 adults and 3 minors.

Port-au-Prince infographic

Local officials said the missionaries were taking a bus to the airport to send some of the members away, but they were kidnapped. Agence France-Presse said that the criminal gang "400 Mawozo" that carried out the kidnapping hijacked several cars on the road, and that an unknown number of Haitian citizens were abducted in addition to the above-mentioned American citizens.

The Washington Post said a Christian aid group in Ohio has identified the kidnapped missionaries from the organization. According to voice messages from the washington post from the organization, local mission leaders and the U.S. Embassy are already figuring out how to do so. In addition, when a missionary was kidnapped, he sent a distress message in the social app WhatsApp group chat: "Please pray for us!" We were taken hostage and they have kidnapped our driver. Please pray, pray, pray again. We don't know where they're going to take us. ”

For months, the gang has been engaged in theft and kidnapping in Port-au-Prince and Haiti's border area with the Dominican Republic, the sources said. A U.S. government spokesman said he was aware of the reports but declined to provide any information and would not comment. "The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the State Department's top priorities," he said. ”

Data released earlier this month by the Port-au-Prince Centre for Human Rights Analysis and Research showed at least 628 kidnappings in the first three quarters of 2021, up from 231 in the same period last year. Gangs, which have controlled the poorest parts of Port-au-Prince for years, have now expanded their control, with an estimated nearly half of the city already controlled by gangsters and a surge in violence in the city. Gangs relentlessly demand decades' wages from the families of the abductees, most of whom live below the poverty line. Haiti has been mired in a political and economic crisis for years, and the assassination of the president in July has further destabilized the country. The New York Times said kidnappings were "shockingly widespread" in Haiti, both rich and poor, but even so, the abduction of so many Americans shocked the country's officials.