Tag Archives: Christian Aid Ministries

U.S. and Canadian missionaries kidnapped in Haiti released by gang

By Gessika Thomas and Brian Ellsworth

(Reuters) -The last 12 Canadian and American missionaries from a group kidnapped in October in Haiti have been released, police said on Thursday, ending an ordeal that brought global attention to the Caribbean nation’s growing problem of gang abductions.

The group, which was abducted by a gang known as 400 Mawozo after visiting an orphanage, originally numbered 17 people on a trip organized by Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries (CAM).

Five of the hostages had already been freed in recent weeks, and the final dozen were found by authorities on a mountain called Morne à Cabrit, said police spokesman Garry Derosier. He declined to provide further details on the release.

“Join us in praising God that all seventeen of our loved ones are now safe,” CAM said in a statement. “Thank you for your fervent prayers throughout the past two months.”

The 400 Mawozo gang, which controls territory to the east of the capital Port-au-Prince, had said it was seeking a ransom of $1 million for each of the missionaries.

The gang’s leader, who goes by the nickname Lanmo Sanjou and has appeared in internet videos wearing a Spider-Man mask, had said he was willing to kill the hostages.

It was not immediately clear whether any ransom was paid.

Gangs have extended their control of territory in Haiti since the assassination in July of President Jovenel Moise. One gang coalition in October created a nationwide fuel shortage by blocking access to storage terminals.

Haitians say everyone from well-heeled elites to working class street vendors face the threat of abduction by the gangs.

(Reporting by Gessika Thomas in Cap-Haitien and Brian Ellsworth in Caracas; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

FBI involved in effort to recover U.S. missionaries kidnapped in Haiti – source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The FBI will assist in the investigation and efforts to locate and free a group of U.S. Christian missionaries who have been kidnapped and are being held by a criminal gang in Haiti, a U.S. law enforcement official told Reuters on Monday.

The Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries organization on Sunday said a group of its missionaries had been kidnapped in Haiti. The group includes 16 Americans and one Canadian.

They were in Haiti to visit an orphanage when their bus was hijacked on Saturday outside the capital Port-au-Prince, according to accounts by other missionaries, amid a spike in kidnappings following the murder of President Jovenel Moise.

The incident is a further sign the Caribbean nation’s gangs are growing increasingly brazen amid political and economic crises.

Specific details of the role the FBI will play in trying to free the missionaries were not immediately available. The FBI’s national press office said in a statement it was referring questions on the kidnapping to the State Department.

Representatives of key congressional committees overseeing foreign affairs and law enforcement said they had not been briefed on FBI involvement in efforts to locate and free the missionaries.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Haitians strike to protest kidnappings; pressure grows to free missionaries

By Gessika Thomas

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haitians on Monday joined a nationwide general strike to protest a growing wave of kidnappings, days after the abduction of a U.S.-based group of missionaries fueled international concerns over gang violence in the crisis-stricken Caribbean nation.

Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries on Sunday said the 16 Americans and one Canadian were in Haiti to visit an orphanage when they were abducted near the capital, Port-au-Prince, a crime that security experts suspect was carried out by a gang known as 400 Mawozo.

Haitian authorities have remained silent about the incident, and the whereabouts of the group of missionaries, which includes women and children, remains unknown.

The streets of Port-au-Prince were empty on Monday morning, with shops and schools closed as part of the strike first called by transportation industry leaders – whose workers are among the most common targets of gang abductions.

Other private-sector businesses later said they were joining the strike to protest the constant kidnappings and the government’s systematic incapacity to address it.

Activists have called for street demonstrations against crime and kidnappings on Monday. A rally is also planned to protest an increase in service fees on cellphone-based money transfers, which have become a popular way to make payments.

The country’s precarious security situation has taken a turn for the worse since the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

The crisis has become a major issue for the United States, with large numbers of Haitian migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border last month, only to be met with a wave of deportations.

(Reporting by Gessika Thomas; Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Paul Simao)