Gangs in Haiti have kidnapped many priests and churchgoers, according to Amy Balog, a member of the group, Aid to the Church in Need.
The group has called for Christians to pray for “restored order” in Haiti, according to Premier Christian News.
“There have been a lot of abductions of church personnel, priests religious in the last few months,” Balog said. “And sometimes these people are kidnapped and then released a few days later, but a number of religious kidnapped last month are still in captivity, they were kidnapped by an armed gang, but no one knows where they are being kept.”
Balog stated that the “motivation for these abductions is not clear either.”
“There is this general sense of insecurity, people are just not feeling safe, roads are blocked, it’s impossible to get in and out of the Capitol. So it’s complete chaos.”
On Monday, the Congregation of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart announced that five of the seven people kidnapped two weeks ago in Port-au-Prince were released.
American Faith reported that chaos erupted in Haiti as a gang attacked government buildings over the weekend, calling for Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign and leading the U.S. Embassy to evacuate all non-essential personnel.
The upsurge in gang violence in neighborhoods near the U.S. embassy and airport has led the State Department to decide to proceed with the departure of additional agents,” a U.S. spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“This airlift of personnel into and out of the Embassy is consistent with our standard practice for Embassy security augmentation worldwide, and no Haitians were on board the military aircraft,” USSOUTHCOM said in a statement. “Our Embassy remains focused on advancing U.S. government efforts to support the Haitian people, including mobilizing support for the Haitian National Police, expediting the deployment of the United Nations-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections.”
The news comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined a group of Caribbean leaders to “expedite a political transition in Haiti through the creation of a broad-based, independent presidential college as well as the deployment of a Multinational Security Support Mission to address the ongoing security crisis,” according to a March 11 press statement.
