A group of up to 17 US missionaries from a Christian group was kidnapped by a gang in Haiti while en route to the airport in Port-au-Prince. Per the New York Times, Haiti officials confirmed the kidnapping, with few details, after Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries sent a voice message about the incident to various religious missions. "This is a special prayer alert," the one-minute message said, per the AP. "Pray that the gang members would come to repentance." The missionaries were on their way home on Saturday after building an orphanage, according to the message.
The message says the mission's field director is working with the US Embassy, and that the field director's family and one other unidentified man stayed at the ministry's base while everyone else visited the orphanage. No other details were immediately available. government spokesperson said they were aware of the reports on the kidnapping. "The welfare and safety of US citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State," the spokesperson said, declining further comment. Haiti is once again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished after President Jovenel Moïse was fatally shot at his private residence on July 7, and following a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck southwest Haiti in August and killed more than 2,200 people.
Gangs have demanded ransoms ranging from a couple hundred dollars to more than $1 million, according to authorities. Last month, a deacon was killed in front of a church in the capital of Port-au-Prince and his wife kidnapped, one of dozens of people who have been abducted in recent months. At least 328 kidnapping victims 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.
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