Haitian gang demands US$1 million for each of 17 kidnapped missionaries
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Tuesday, October 19, 2021
According to CBS News and the Associated Press, a gang in Haiti that is suspected of kidnapping seventeen Christian missionaries from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries demanded a ransom payment of US$1 million for each person. The sixteen United States citizens and one Canadian citizen were reportedly kidnapped on Sunday outside of the capital city Port-au-Prince by the gang “400 Mawozo”.
The seventeen missionaries were abducted when they were visiting an orphanage. Among the people kidnapped are five children, aged eight months, three years, six years, thirteen years, and fifteen years, and the adults were between eighteen and 48 years old according to Christian Aid Ministries.
The Haitian justice minister Liszt Quitel said both the Haitian police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are negotiating the release of the missionaries. Quitel said, “We are trying to get them released without paying any ransom. 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.”
The White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “[T]he FBI is a part of a coordinated U.S. government effort to get the U.S. citizens involved to safety”.
A press release from Christian Aid Ministries said that, “This group of workers has been committed to minister throughout poverty-stricken Haiti. Their heart-felt desire is to share the love of Jesus. Before the kidnapping, their work throughout Haiti included supporting thousands of needy school children, distributing Bibles and Christian literature, supplying medicines for numerous clinics, teaching Haitian pastors, and providing food for the elderly and vulnerable.”
Earlier this year in April, the same gang kidnapped a group of five Catholic priests, two nuns, and three relatives. All ten people were released at the end of the month. Ransom was paid for only two of the priests.
According to Quitel, the seventeen people are being held outside of the Port-au-Prince suburb of Croix-des-Bouquets, which 400 Mawozo controls.