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The FBI and the State Department’s diplomatic team are working hard to find and release 17 Christian missionaries kidnapped by a gang in Haiti.
On Monday, the streets of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince were silent, and Haitians staged a general strike to protest the worsening insecurity and gang violence following the incident. Kidnapping groups Christian missionary.
“People can’t stand it anymore,” said Holin Alexis, a motorcycle taxi driver who took part in the strike.
According to the Associated Press, tire-burning roadblocks blocked some streets in the capital and other cities, and some people threw stones at cars passing by occasionally.
The FBI is working with diplomats from the State Department to find and release missionaries in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which has been in crisis since the assassination of the prime minister in July.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday: “The president has listened to the briefing and regularly receives updates on the work done by the State Department and the FBI to bring these people home safely.”
“The FBI is part of a coordinated action by the U.S. government to involve American citizens in security,” Psaki said, but declined to provide more details due to “operational considerations.”
A Haitian gang known for their unbridled kidnappings and killings was defendant The American missionaries abducted by the Port-au-Prince police included 12 adults and 5 children. This is the largest such kidnapping reported in recent years.
The kidnapped group from Ohio Christian Aid consisted of 16 American citizens and one Canadian national. The organization said they were on a bus when they were kidnapped after visiting the orphanage.
The Christian Aid headquarters in Ohio, a US-based missionary organization, closed on Monday because a gang notorious for killing and extortion kidnapped 12 adults and 5 children over the weekend. [Julie Carr Smyth/AP Photo]“Since our 17 workers were kidnapped by a gang in Haiti, we have entered the third day,” Christian Aid said in a statement on Monday.
“The government authorities in Haiti and the United States understand what has happened and are providing assistance,” said the organization, which was founded and supported by the Amish and Mennonite church groups.
The statement said: “We will continue to monitor the situation closely and pray sincerely.”
Abductions in Haiti have risen sharply President Geoffnell Mois was killed In July, armed groups took advantage of insecurity, food shortages and political crises in the government.
Haitian Police Inspector Franz Champagne told the Associated Press on Sunday that 400 Mawozo groups had robbed the missionary group in Gantier, east of Port-au-Prince.
The name of the group roughly translates to 400 “inexperienced people” and controls the Croix-des-Bouquets area, including Gantier, where the kidnapping took place.
According to statistics from the Port-au-Prince Human Rights Analysis and Research Center, there has been a surge in kidnappings in Haiti, with more than 600 cases in the first three months of 2021, higher than the 231 cases in the same period in 2020.
The director of the center, Gedeon Jean, told AFP: “It turns out that the police cannot fight these gangs. These gangs are better organized and control more and more territories.”
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