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.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS