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Haiti gang wants US$17 million ransom for kidnapped American, Canadian missionaries

Haiti gang wants US$17 million ransom for kidnapped American, Canadian missionaries

Haiti gang wants US$17 million ransom for kidnapped American, Canadian missionaries
Oct 19, 2021 1 min, 57 secs

The gang that kidnapped a group of 17 American and Canadian missionaries in Haiti has asked for $1 million each for their release, a top Haitian official told CNN Tuesday.

Haitian Justice Minister Liszt Quitel told CNN the kidnappers have demanded a total of $17 million for the group's release and that they were being held in a location outside the suburb.

The missionaries are affiliated with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, which says the abducted group is made up of five men, seven women and five children.

The kidnappers first called Christian Aid Ministries' staff in Haiti at 4:53 p.m.

Several calls between the kidnappers and the missionary group have taken place since then, he said.

Quitel said that both Haitian police negotiators and the FBI are advising the missionary group on how to proceed and that negotiations are ongoing.

FBI agents are on the ground in Haiti assisting with the investigation but are not leading the negotiations, nor have they spoken directly with the kidnappers, he said.

The hostages are being held somewhere outside of Croix-des-Bouquets, the Port-au-Prince suburb controlled by the gang, Quitel said.

But they are not swayed by those warnings," said Quitel, adding that the kidnappers are sticking to their demands.

The source added the gang members in contact with authorities appear calm and not nervous.

Dan Hooley, a former field director for Christian Aid Ministries in Haiti, told CNN Sunday that all of the kidnapped people are believed to have been in one vehicle, and that some were able to contact the organization's local director before they were taken.

The 400 Mawozo has been growing in strength for the past three years, numbering up to 150 members, and has essentially taken control of Croix des Bouquets, the source in Haiti's security forces told CNN on Sunday

Hooley said the members of the missionary group would have been aware of the risks they were taking

In a 2020 blog post, a Christian Aid Ministries missionary in Haiti described the risks they faced working there

The missionary wrote how the organization's home base in Titanyen, a village north of Port-au-Prince, had been threatened by a local gang

But the blog founders are a pair of missionaries who had been in Haiti for a number of years

In the post, the author writes that the missionary eventually began "working with the gang trying to resolve the ugly situation."

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