"Nowhere is safe for children in Haiti anymore," Jean Gough, UNICEF regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement. "They represent one third of the 455 kidnappings reported this year," the agency said. UNICEF said Thursday 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. It also noted a Haitian pastor abducted earlier this month had not been released despite a ransom being paid.Ĭriminals "operate with complete impunity, attacking all members of society," the office said. The same day that the missionaries were kidnapped, a gang also abducted a Haiti university professor, according to Haiti's ombudsman-like Office of Citizen Protection.
"Many people in the community feel helpless, but they also realize the power of prayer and the power of our historic theology," including the Anabaptist belief in nonresistance to violence, said Marcus Yoder, executive director of the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in Millersburg. Many members of those groups have supported the organization through donations or by volunteering at its warehouse. The gang leader's death threat added to the already intense concern in and around Holmes County, Ohio, where Christian Aid Ministries is based and which has one of the nation's largest concentrations of Amish, conservative Mennonite and related groups. The organization later issued a statement saying it would not comment on the video. "Pray for these families," Showalter said. 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. He read a letter from the families, who weren't 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." Weston Showalter, spokesman for the religious group, said the families of those kidnapped are from Amish, Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist communities in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ontario, Canada. The missionaries who were abducted Saturday during a visit to an orphanage are with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, which held a news conference before Joseph's video was posted. There was no immediate comment from Charles or Elbe.
"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 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. Later in the day, Henry's office announced that Leon Charles had resigned as head of Haiti's National Police and was replaced by Frantz Elbe. But I'm going to make you guys cry blood," he said.
Joseph also threatened Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Haiti's national police chief as he spoke in front of the open coffins that apparently held several members of his gang who were recently killed. Sixteen Americans and one Canadian were abducted, along with their Haitian driver. Officials said early in the week that the 400 Mawozo gang was demanding US$1 million for each of those kidnapped, although it wasn't clear if that included the five children in the group, among them an 8-month-old.
"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 Thursday. The boss of a notorious Haitian gang accused of kidnapping 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group last weekend is warning that the hostages will be killed if his demands aren't met.