Updates of 17 Missionaries Abducted by 400 Mawozo Gang in Haiti

"Please pray for us!! We are being held hostage, they kidnapped our driver. Pray pray pray. We don't know where they are taking us," the message sent by an American citizen, one of the abducted missionaries.

The group members posted a call for help in a WhatsApp group as the kidnapping was occurring, The Washington Post reported.

Gang members in Haiti. By some estimates, gangs now control roughly half of the city. Photo: The New York Times

It remains unclear whether the message was a video or a text sent and there is no information on the WhatsApp group itself in the Washington Post's reporting.

The missionaries had just left an orphanage in the Croix des Bouquets area and were traveling by bus to the airport in Titanyen, north of the capital Port-au-Prince, to "drop off some members".

Gangs expand territory as Haiti government struggles to stay in control

Due to travel to another destination, the gang struck in Port-au-Prince, that the seventeen missionaries were abducted along the route between the two places, said Haitian security officials.

There are a total of seventeen missionaries from the United States and Canada were kidnapped in Haiti on Saturday, according to the organization Christian Aid Ministries.

According to a source in Haiti's security forces, an investigation is ongoing who attributed the kidnapping to local gang members. Haitian officials are in line with the US State Department about the kidnapping, the country's foreign minister, Claude Joseph, reported by CNN.

The 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped the group — which also included some elderly people — in Ganthier, a commune that lies east of the capital of Port-au-Prince, Haitian police inspector Frantz Champagne told The Associated Press.

The Mawozo Gang, whose name roughly translates to 400 “inexperienced men," controls the Croix-des-Bouquets area that includes Ganthier, where they carry out kidnappings and carjackings and extort business owners, according to Haiti authorities.

Croix-des-Bouquets, one of the suburbs now under control by the gang, has become a near ghost town, with many residents fleeing the day-to-day violence. By some estimates, gangs now control about half the capital.

The gang allegedly recruits children, forcing them to attack people they've kidnapped and even target churches that were once thought as off-limits.

Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, busloads of passengers and others as they grow more powerful.

The gang was also blamed for kidnapping five priests and two nuns earlier this year in Haiti.

Protest in Haiti Photo: VALERIE BAERISWYL | Credit: AFP via Getty Images

A voice recording from the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, described as a "prayer alert," said that the "mission field director and the American embassy are working to see what can be done," the Washington Post reports.

Dan Hooley, a former field director for Christian Aid Ministries in Haiti, expressed on Sunday that all of the kidnapped missionaries are believed to have been in one vehicle and that some were able to contact the organization's local director before they were taken. The kidnappers have already made contact with the organization.

"A couple of fellows right away messaged the director and told him what was going on. And one of them was able to drop a pin, and that's the last thing [the organization] heard until the kidnappers contacted them later in the day," Hooley said.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said late Saturday confirmed in an emailed statement Sunday that 16 U.S. citizens were among those abducted in greater Port-au-Prince.

He was aware of the reports, and later he added that "the welfare and safety of US citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State."

According to a senior US official familiar with the situation, the FBI and State Department officials are working around the clock to secure the release of Americans, but so far do not know the current location of the kidnapped missionaries.

Canadian officials are also working with local authorities and "implicated NGOs" to gather information, a spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada told CNN.

CNN has reached out to the Haitian Justice Ministry and the National Police but they have not yet commented.

While the Christian Aid Ministries community is reeling from the news, Hooley said that its members in Haiti would have been cognizant of the risks they were taking.

"These are very dedicated people, people that have risked their lives, they knew the dangers that they were in, or at least were aware of what could happen, I'm sure," he said to CNN.

Armed forces secure the area where the Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry placed a bouquet of flowers in front of independence hero Jean Jacques Dessalines memorial in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021. A group of 17 U.S. missionaries including children was kidnapped by a gang in Haiti on Saturday, Oct. 16, according to a voice message sent to various religious missions by an organization with direct knowledge of the incident. Photo: Joseph Odelyn (AP)

Kidnappings have surged in Haiti throughout 2021, with numbers rising nearly 300% since July.

Haiti has been gripped by violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last July — with police receiving at least 328 kidnapping reports in the first eight months of 2021, compared with 234 in total for 2020, a UN agency in Haiti found last month, the Associated Press cited.

According to the Washington Post, a rights group in Port-au-Prince reported abductions surged from 73 in August to 117 in September, which notes the country has the "highest per capita kidnapping rate on Earth."

The rise in kidnappings in Haiti is largely due to the gang 400 Mawozo, which controls much of Croix des Bouquets and even taxes local businesses, acknowledged by CARDH.

While it was not immediately clear why the Americans were taken, abductions have affected all social classes in Haiti in recent weeks — with kidnappers demanding anything from $100 to six figures in ransom, the Washington Post reported.

At least 628 kidnappings have taken place since January, of which 29 are of foreigners, according to data released earlier this month by the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights (CARDH), a non-profit based in Port-au-Prince.

Children walk on the courtyard of the Maison La Providence de Dieu orphanage in Ganthier, Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021, where a gang abducted 17 missionaries from a U.S.-based organization. The 400 Mawozo gang, notorious for brazen kidnappings and killings took the group of 16 U.S. citizens and one Canadian, after a trip to visit the orphanage. Photo: Joseph Odelyn (AP)

Kidnapping in Haiti is often indiscriminate, with even the poor targeted.

Several kidnapping victims and their families previously shared to CNN that they were still working to pay off debts, after borrowing money from friends, employers, and even banks to pay ransoms.

Méhu Changeux, president of the Association of Owners and Drivers of Haiti, told CNN on Sunday, "We call on the government to put an end to the kidnappings and provide us safety or for them to resign immediately."

"We are the most victims; the transportation sector is an easy target for kidnappers all over the country. We lost many members to the insecurity and dozens of members have been kidnapped," she added.

"The latest tragedy of the kidnapping of the American missionaries shows no one is safe in this country," Changeux said.

The once-bustling area, Croix-des-Bouquets, now lacks the poor street vendors who once lined the sidewalks, some of whom had been kidnapped by the gang for what little they had in their pockets or told to sell what few possessions they have at home, including radios or refrigerators, to pay off the ransom.

Nearly a year ago, Haitian police issued a wanted poster for the gang's alleged leader, Wilson Joseph, who goes by the nickname “Lanmò Sanjou,” which means “death doesn’t know which day it’s coming;” on charges including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, auto theft and the hijacking of trucks carrying goods.

US, Haiti seek release of 17 missionaries snatched by gang

U.S. officials are working with Haitian authorities to try to secure the release of 12 adults and five children with a U.S.-based missionary group who were abducted over the weekend by a gang notorious for killings, kidnappings and extortion.

The group was snatched by the 400 Mawozo gang, which controls the Croix-des-Bouquets area east of the capital of Port-au-Prince, police inspector Frantz Champagne told The Associated Press on Sunday. The abduction happened Saturday in the community of Ganthier, which lies in the gang's area. It was blamed for the kidnapping of five priests and two nuns earlier this year.

As authorities sought the release of the 16 Americans and one Canadian with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, local unions and other organizations expected to launch a strike Monday to protest Haiti’s worsening lack of security.

The Western Hemisphere's poorest nation is again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished in recent months, after President Jovenel Moïse was fatally shot at his private residence on July 7 and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in August.

“Everyone is concerned. They’re kidnapping from all social classes,” Méhu Changeux, president of Haiti’s Association of Owners and Drivers, told Magik9 radio station.

He said the work stoppage would continue until the government could guarantee people’s safety.

The kidnapping of the missionaries came just days after high-level U.S. officials visited Haiti and promised more resources for Haiti’s National Police, including another $15 million to help reduce gang violence, which this year has displaced thousands of Haitians who now live in temporary shelters in increasingly unhygienic conditions.

The U.S. State Department said Sunday that it was in regular contact with senior Haitian authorities and would continue to work with them and interagency partners.

“The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State,” the agency said in a statement.

Christian Aid Ministries said the kidnapped group included seven women, five men and five children, including a 2-year-old. The organization said they were taken while on a trip to visit an orphanage.

“Join us in praying for those who are being held hostage, the kidnappers and the families, friends and churches of those affected,” Christian Aid Ministries said in a statement. “As an organization, we commit this situation to God and trust him to see us through.”

An annual report issued last year by Christian Aid Ministries said its American staffers had returned to their base in Haiti after a nine-month absence “due to political unrest” and noted the “uncertainty and difficulties” that arise from such instability.

Nearly a year ago, Haitian police issued a wanted poster for the alleged leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, Wilson Joseph, on charges including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, auto theft and the hijacking of trucks carrying goods. He goes by the nickname “Lanmò Sanjou,” which means “death doesn’t know which day it’s coming.”

Amid the spike in kidnappings, gangs have demanded ransoms ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to more than $1 million, sometimes killing those they have abducted, according to authorities, reported the spectrumlocalnews.

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