Five clerics and two nuns were kidnapped in Haiti on Sunday, a Catholic minister said, with two French residents among the prisoners in the Caribbean country progressively riven by kidnappings and vicious wrongdoing.
The ministry individuals were kidnapped in the community of Croix-des-Bouquets, upper east of the capital Port-au-Prince, said Father Gilbert Peltrop, secretary general of the Haitian Conference of the Religious (CHR) affiliation.
“The nation must stand up to fight these thugs,”Peltrop said. The French residents included one minister and a pious devotee, he said.
France’s Foreign Ministry affirmed that two French residents had been seized in Haiti yet didn’t give further subtleties, refering to security reasons.
“The crisis and support centre of the ministry of Europe and foreign affairs is fully mobilised as well as our embassy in Haiti, in close contact with local authorities,” the statement said.
Haiti’s President Jovenal Moise vowed Monday to do more to combat the country’s “scourge” of kidnappings vowing that he would “not give up” and “do everything the law allows” to secure the kidnapped people’s release, and to tackle Haiti’s kidnapping problem more broadly.
“I am aware that the state must make more of an effort in the battle against this disaster that is kidnapping and organized crime in the country,” he said.
The Haitian Conference of Religious (CHR) also slammed the lack of agency by government authorities in a statement and expressed “anger at the subhuman situation through which we have been wading for more than a decade.”
“Not a day goes by without weeping and gnashing of teeth, yet the so-called leaders of this country, while clinging to power, are increasingly powerless.”
The kidnappings come under about fourteen days after shooters abducted a Haitian minister and three others during a service that was transferred live on Facebook.
The abducting of the seven ministry was completed by the infamous “400 Mawozo” pack, Haitian news office Juno7 said.
“The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $1 million dollars,” Juno7 said.
Haiti has been shaken by rising brutality lately, particularly by a spate of kidnappings for ransoms which have deadened the economy and Haitian culture.
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