The boss of a notorious Haitian gang accused of kidnapping 17 members of a US-based missionary group on Thursday warned that the hostages would be killed if his demands are not met.
“I swear by thunder that if I don’t get what I’m asking for, I will put a bullet in the heads of these Americans,” gang leader Wilson Joseph said in a video posted on social media.
Officials earlier in the week said that the “400 Mawozo” gang was demanding US$1 million for each of those kidnapped, although it was not clear if that included the five children in the group, among them an eight-month-old. Sixteen Americans and one Canadian were abducted, along with their Haitian driver.
Photo: Reuters
Joseph also threatened Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the Haitian National Police Director Leon Charles, as he spoke in front of the open coffins that apparently held several members of his gang who had been killed.
“You guys make me cry. I cry water, but I’m going to make you guys cry blood,” he said.
Later in the day, Henry’s office announced that Charles had resigned and was replaced by Frantz Elbe. The newspaper Le Nouvelliste said Elbe was director of the police departments of the South East and Nippes, and previously served as general security coordinator at the National Palace when Jocelerme Privert was provisional president.
“We would like for public peace to be restored, that we return to normal life and that we regain our way to democracy,” Henry said.
The missionaries who were abducted on Saturday last week during a visit to an orphanage are with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, which held a news conference before Joseph’s video was posted.
Weston Showalter, spokesman for the religious group, said the families of those kidnapped are from Amish, Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist communities in Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
He read a letter from the families, who were not identified by name, in which they said: “God has given our loved ones the unique opportunity to live out our Lord’s command to love your enemies.”
The group invited people to join them in prayer for the kidnappers as well as those kidnapped, and expressed gratitude for help from “people that are knowledgeable and experienced in dealing with” such situations.
The same day that the missionaries were kidnapped, a gang also abducted a Haiti university professor, the Haitian Office of Citizen Protection said, adding that a Haitian pastor abducted earlier this month had not been released despite a ransom being paid.
UNICEF on Thursday said that 71 women and 30 children have been kidnapped so far this year — surpassing the 59 women and 37 children abducted in all of last year.
Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators blocked roads and burned tires in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, to protest a severe fuel shortage and a spike in insecurity and to demand that the prime minister step down.
In addition to kidnappings, the gangs are accused of blocking gas distribution terminals and hijacking supply trucks, which officials say has led to a shortage of fuel.
Many gas stations remain closed for days at a time, and the lack of fuel is so dire that the CEO of Digicel Haiti announced this week that 150 of its 1,500 branches countrywide are out of diesel.
Alexandre Simon, an English and French teacher, said he and others were protesting because of the dire conditions facing Haitians.
“There are a lot of people who cannot eat,” he said. “There is no work ... There are a lot of things we don’t have.”
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