Haiti gang seeks $1 million per person for kidnapped missionaries

Oct 19 (Reuters) - A Haitian gang that kidnapped a group of American and Canadian missionaries is asking for $17 million - or $1 million each - to release them, according to a top Haitian official.

Justice Minister Liszt Quitel told Reuters that talks were under way with kidnappers to seek the release of the missionaries abducted over the weekend outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, by a gang called 400 Mawozo.

The minister confirmed the ransom fee, telling Reuters: "They asked for $1 million per person." The fee was first reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier in the day.

The FBI and Haitian police were advising the group in negotiations, the minister said.

government is "relentlessly focused" on the kidnapping and in constant communication with Haitian police and the missionaries' church, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told journalists in Quito, where he met with that country's president and foreign minister.