Gunmen freed a US missionary a day after he was shot and abducted, and officials said 14 children and their school bus driver were released safely in a separate kidnapping.
Phillip Snyder, 48, was released on Friday after the kidnappers were paid a ransom, said Police Commissioner Francois Henri Doussous, head of Haiti's anti-kidnapping unit.
"He is alive and well," Doussous said.
Doussous said the ransom was "much less" than the US$300,000 the kidnappers first sought, but he did not specify the amount. It was not immediately clear who paid it.
The police commander said the kidnappers were members of criminal gangs in Cite Soleil, a sprawling seaside slum. Gangs there have been blamed for kidnappings that have terrorized the capital in recent months.
Snyder was being treated for his wound at a UN military hospital near Cite Soleil. The president of Zeeland, Michigan-based Glow Ministries International, Snyder was seized on Thursday on the main road leading north from the Haitian capital. He was said to have been going to the US Consulate to help a boy get a medical visa so he could have eye surgery.
In a separate incident, gunmen kidnapped 14 children and their bus driver as they rode to school on Thursday and released them unharmed hours later, police said.
The spate of kidnappings highlight the chaos and violence engulfing the country as it prepares for a return to democracy, with elections scheduled for Jan. 8.
Gangs allegedly close to ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide frequently skirmish with UN peacekeepers striving for control of the Cite Soleil slum in the capital.
Doussous said the kidnappings were to raise money to buy more ammunition and were not politically motivated.
"This is purely criminal activity," said Doussous. "The gangs need money."
It was near Cite Soleil that Snyder was ambushed by gangs who fired at least two rounds through the windshield of his car.
Police had feared that the 14 children, aged 5-17, and their school bus driver would also be brought to Cite Soleil after they were kidnapped. But officers erected road blocks to prevent that, Doussous said. No arrests were made, he said.
The kidnapped missionary's wife, Amber Snyder, 38, said the Red Cross was able to examine her husband in captivity. Both she and Doussous spoke to the him by phone during his ordeal.
Snyder visits Haiti about one-third to one-half of the school year, his wife said.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS