The kidnappers of the North American missionaries in Haiti are apparently demanding $ 17 million (14.6 million euros) for their release.

As the news agency AFP learned from security circles on Tuesday, the notorious gang demanded 400 Mawozo for each of the 17 hostages one million dollars.

The missionaries and their families were abducted on Saturday on their way back from an orphanage outside the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Haitian Justice Minister Liszt Quitel confirmed that the 400 Mawozo gang was behind the kidnapping.

He stated, according to the Washington Post, that the kidnappers usually ask for large sums, which are reduced during negotiations.

However, his officials are not involved in the talks.

On Monday, the US State Department sent a small team of investigators to Haiti to assist the authorities.

The hostages are five men, seven women and five children, as their Christian organization Christian Aid Ministries from the US state of Ohio announced.

16 of them are US citizens, one is Canadian.

The US authorities say they are “in close contact with the families” of the abductees.

The number of kidnappings is increasing

As recently as April, ten people, including two French clergy, had been detained by 400 Mawozo for 20 days in the same region.

The group controls several roads in the area.

There she repeatedly hijacks vehicles and even entire buses, abducts their occupants and demands ransom.

According to human rights activists, the number of kidnappings has increased significantly in recent months.

Meanwhile, numerous people protested on Tuesday in Port-au-Prince with a general strike against the ongoing gang crime in the Caribbean state.

In the capital the streets were deserted, shops, schools and government buildings were closed.

Tires burned during a road blockade.

Haiti, which is characterized by great poverty, has been struggling for years with natural disasters and political crises that have paralyzed the state and the economy.

The murder of President Jovenel Moïse in July, which has not yet been dealt with, and a major earthquake a month later in the south-west of the country, in which 2,200 people died and 130,000 houses were destroyed, have exacerbated the country's problems.