PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Six Catholic missionaries and a teacher were abducted in the Haitian capital, their parish said Saturday, amid a continuing uptick in kidnappings in the country.
The Brothers of the Sacred Heart parish in Haiti announced “with pain the villainous kidnapping of six… members and a teacher working in the mission” at a school in the gang-controlled Bicentenaire neighborhood on Friday morning.
A ransom demand was made, a source in the congregation told the media.
“For several years, absurd and unjustified violence has befallen the peaceful Haitian people, and even people who devote their lives to the cause of the most vulnerable are not spared,” the parish said, adding that it was closing the Jean XXIII school, where the victims worked, “until further notice.”
Haiti, which is facing severe security insecurity and a worsening political and health crisis, has seen a sharp increase in kidnappings in recent months, especially in the densely populated capital.
January was Haiti’s most violent month in two years, with more than 800 people killed, injured or kidnapped and about 300 gang members killed or wounded, according to the United Nations.
In the wake of widespread gang violence, the UN Security Council approved a multinational mission to support the Haitian police, but the mission was stalled by legal proceedings in Kenya, which agreed to lead the project.
