• 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

Know more

  • Haiti

  • USA

  • Kidnappings

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