As many as 17 American Christian missionaries and their family members were kidnapped on Saturday by gang members in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince
The missionaries were abducted from a bus headed to the airport to drop off some members of the group before continuing to another destination in Haiti, a report by the New York Times stated, citing security officials from the crisis-engulfed Caribbean nation.
The missionaries were on their way home from building an orphanage, according to a message from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries.
The organization sent a voice message to various religious missions saying: ‘This is a special prayer alert. Pray that the gang members would come to repentance.’
The group, which includes children, were kidnapped outside the Haitian capital by an armed gang which for months has been engaged in theft and kidnappings.
As many as 17 Christian Missionaries from the United States have been kidnapped by a gang on Saturday in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Pictured, soldiers guard the Public Prosecutor’s office in Port-au-Prince (file photo)
Haitian security officials say the group, including children, were kidnapped as they were leaving an orphanage. There could be as many as 100 gangs in Port-au-Prince; no one has an exact count and allegiances often are violently fluid (file photo)
The prayer message states that the mission’s field director is working with the U.S. Embassy, and that the field director’s family and one other unidentified man stayed at the ministry’s base while everyone else visiting the orphanage was abducted.
A U.S. government spokesperson said they were aware of the reports on the kidnapping.
‘The welfare and safety of U.S. 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.