Large group of American missionaries kidnapped in Haiti

Seventeen missionaries, including children, were kidnapped by a gang in Haiti on Saturday. The abductions were not reported by the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, but through a voice message sent to various religious missions by an organization with direct knowledge of the incident.

The kidnapping happened after the missionaries left an orphanage in the crisis-engulfed Caribbean nation, the New York Times and CNN said.

“This is a special prayer alert,” the one-minute message said. “Pray that the gang members would come to repentance.”

The message says the mission’s field director is working with the U.S. Embassy, and that the field director’s family and one other unidentified man who stayed at the ministry’s base while everyone else visiting the orphanage, was abducted.

No other details were immediately available.

A U.S. government spokesperson said they were aware of the reports on the kidnapping.

“The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State,” the spokesperson said, declining further comment.

Haiti is once again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings amid political and social turmoil like the fatal shooting of President Jovenel Moïse at his private residence on July 7, and a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck southwest Haiti in August, killing more than 2,200 people.

Gangs have demanded ransoms ranging from a couple hundred dollars to more than $1 million, according to authorities.

Last month, a deacon was killed in front of a church in the capital of Port-au-Prince and his wife kidnapped, one of dozens of people who have been abducted in recent months.

At least 328 kidnapping victims were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, according to a report issued last month by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti known as BINUH.

Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, busloads of passengers, and others as they grow more powerful. In April, one gang kidnapped five priests and two nuns, a move that prompted a protest similar to the one organized for this Monday to decry the lack of security in the impoverished country.

“Political turmoil, the surge in gang violence, deteriorating socioeconomic conditions—including food insecurity and malnutrition—all contribute to the worsening of the humanitarian situation,” BINUH said in its report. “An overstretched and under-resourced police force alone cannot address the security ills of Haiti.”

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend the U.N. political mission in Haiti.

The kidnapping of the missionaries comes just days after high-level U.S. officials visited Haiti and promised more resources for Haiti’s National Police, including another $15 million to help reduce gang violence. The violence this year has displaced thousands of Haitians who now live in temporary shelters in increasingly unhygienic conditions.

The Biden administration, say some on the ground in Haiti, is partially responsible after it failed to offer rudimentary aid and security following a coup attempt which resulted in even more lawlessness. The administration even evacuated embassy staff, making it difficult for Americans on the ground to get support from the embassy.

Haitian authorities, including its police chief, say that exacerbates the spread of gangs and violence.

Among those who met with the police chief was Uzra Zeya, U.S. under secretary of state for civilian security, democracy, and human rights.

“Dismantling violent gangs is vital to Haitian stability and citizen security,” she recently tweeted.

–wire services