The Haitian gang members that kidnapped a group of seventeen Americans and Canadians – including five children – outside Port-au-Prince last week are demanding seventeen million dollars for their release.
The abducted, all members of Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, include an 8-month baby and children aged 3, 6, 14 and 15 years old. All the kidnapping victims are Mennonites, although their charity also has a heavy Amish contingent. They were kidnapped at gunpoint on Saturday while they were returning from a visit to an orphanage.
Authorities say the responsible parties are member of 400 Mawozo, a gang that also kidnapped five priests, two nuns, and three of their relatives earlier this year.
Those kidnapping victims were released after a partial ransom was paid.
The 17 members of Christian Aid Ministries, including one Canadian and sixteen Americans, are being held in safe house in a suburb controlled by the gang.
According to CNN, “A source in Haiti’s security forces said that for the moment all hostages are safe. The source added the gang members in contact with authorities appear calm and not nervous.”
“We are trying to get them released without paying any ransom,” Haitian Justice Minister Liszt Quitel said. “This is the first course of action. Let’s be honest: When we give them that money, that money is going to be used for more guns and more munitions.”
CNN adds:
Quitel said the kidnappers first called Christian Aid Ministries’ staff in Haiti at 4:53 p.m. on Saturday, stating their ransom demands at the time of the call. Several calls between the kidnappers and the missionary group have taken place since then, he said.
Quitel said that both Haitian police negotiators and the FBI are advising the missionary group on how to proceed and that negotiations are ongoing. FBI agents are on the ground in Haiti assisting with the investigation but are not leading the negotiations, nor have they spoken directly with the kidnappers, he said
“The FBI is part of a coordinated U.S. government effort to get the U.S. citizens involved to safety,” said White House press secretary Jen Psak on Monday.
The Washington Post provides context for the kidnapping:
The attack was part of an alarming surge in kidnappings hitting Haitians, both rich and poor, as the poverty-stricken country struggles to overcome a series of crises. Meanwhile, local unions have organized a widespread general strike that was continuing on Tuesday, as demonstrators took to the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to protest the deteriorating security situation in the disaster-stricken country.
The Associated Press reports:
At least 328 kidnappings 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.
The AP explains that Christian Aid Ministries is a missionary group that “offers Bible classes, runs a medical clinic, helps orphans and distributes seeds to farmers, among other efforts in Haiti.”
The group recently returned to Haiti after a nine-month hiatus “due to political unrest.”
