America The US envoy in Haiti resigns and denounces the "inhumane" deportations of migrants
Fr The Haitian diaspora drowns its hopes in the Rio Grande
Some
15 US missionaries
were kidnapped on Saturday by a criminal gang on the
outskirts of Port-au-Prince
, a Haitian security source told AFP.
Between
15 and 17 Americans, including children
, were left in the hands of an armed gang that has been carrying out kidnapping and robberies for months in the area between the capital of Haiti and the border with the Dominican Republic, said the source, who said
he could not confirm if the captors have asked for the payment of a ransom
.
"The welfare and safety of US citizens abroad is one of our top priorities at the State Department. We know this information and have nothing to add at the moment," a US government spokesman told AFP.
On Saturday morning the
gang called "400 mawozo"
diverted several cars that were traveling on routes it controls and kidnapped Americans as well as Haitian citizens.
The missionaries and their relatives were returning from visiting an orphanage
located about 30 km from Port-au-Prince, a source from the security service told AFP.
For some members of that
religious organization based in Ohio
, USA, this was their first trip to Haiti.
In April 10 people, including 10 French religious, were kidnapped by that gang in the same area.
Released after 20 days in captivity, Father
Michel Briand
then told AFP that the group was "in a bad place, at a bad time" and that those who abducted them had not planned to kidnap them.
The
armed gangs, who for years have controlled the poorest districts of the Haitian capital, have extended their power
to Port au Prince and surrounding areas, where the number of kidnappings is increasing.
More than 600 crimes of this type were registered in the first three quarters of 2021, against 231 in the same period of 2020, according to the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, based in the Haitian capital.
A
deep political crisis has
paralyzed the socio-economic development of Haiti for many years.
The assassination on July 7 of President Jovenel Moïse by an armed commando at his private residence further plunged the Caribbean country into uncertainty.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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