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(CNN)One of Haiti's astir almighty gangs is believed to beryllium down the kidnapping of 17 American and Canadian missionaries implicit the weekend, a root successful the Caribbean country's information forces told CNN.
Authorities judge the "400 Mawozo" gang abducted the group, which included 16 Americans and 1 Canadian, aft the missionaries visited an orphanage connected Saturday successful Croix des Bouquets, a suburb northeast of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
As they were traveling from the orphanage towards Titanyen, northbound of Port-au-Prince, pack members stopped the conveyance astatine gunpoint.
The 400 Mawozo pack has been increasing successful spot for the past 3 years, numbering up to 150 members, and has fundamentally taken power of Croix des Bouquets, the root successful Haiti's information forces told CNN connected Sunday,
Kidnapping for ransom is simply a hallmark enactment of the gang. They person abducted dozens of radical this twelvemonth alone, including overseas nationals, the root said.
Once notorious for car theft, the 400 Mawozo has pioneered "collective" kidnappings of ample groups of victims from buses and cars, according to the Center for Analysis and Research for Human Rights (CARDH), a Port-au-Prince-based nonprofit.
Much of the emergence successful kidnappings successful Haiti is owed to the 400 Mawozo, according to CARDH. Gang members prosecute successful adjacent regular confrontations with Haitian constabulary and adjacent taxation section businesses.
In September, the pack kidnapped "several" motortruck drivers from the Dominican Republic, and proceed to clasp them hostage amid negotiations for their release, the Haitian information unit root said.
Those ongoing negotiations are factoring into authorities' decisions astir however to proceed with the kidnapped American and Canadian missionaries, the root added.
According to CARDH, the bulk of the gang's victims are Haitian citizens and kidnappings person surged successful Haiti this twelvemonth -- with a astir 300% summation since July.
At slightest 628 kidnappings person taken spot since January, including of 29 foreigners, according to information released by the center. The 400 Mawozo has typically demanded ransoms of astir $20,000, it said.
Gang enactment successful Haiti is truthful entrenched that adjacent Prime Minister Ariel Henry was forced to backtrack connected plans to laic a wreath for the Haitian Revolution person Jean-Jacques Dessalines connected Sunday -- a nationalist vacation commemorating his decease -- during a memorial successful Pont Rouge, an country controlled by a conjugation of gangs known arsenic the G9.
"We wanted to spell there," a root adjacent to the premier curate told CNN. "To debar a bloodbath, we turned back."
Investigation ongoing
The US State Department confirmed Monday that 16 US citizens were among the 17 individuals abducted.
"The payment and information of US citizens overseas is 1 of the highest priorities of the Department of State. We person been successful regular interaction with elder Haitian authorities and volition proceed to enactment with them and inter-agency partners," a State Department spokesperson said successful a statement.
Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries released a connection connected Sunday confirming the kidnapping of the missionaries and said the abducted radical was made up of 5 men, 7 women and 5 children.
"We are seeking God's absorption for a resolution, and authorities are seeking ways to help," the connection said.
Dan Hooley, a erstwhile tract manager for Christian Aid Ministries successful Haiti, told CNN connected Sunday that each of the kidnapped missionaries are believed to person been successful 1 vehicle, and that immoderate were capable to interaction the organization's section manager earlier they were taken.
The kidnappers person besides already made interaction with the organization, helium said.
"A mates of fellows close distant messaged the manager and told him what was going on. And 1 of them was capable to driblet a pin, and that's the past happening (the organization) heard until the kidnappers contacted them aboriginal successful the day," Hooley said.
Haitian officials are successful interaction with the US State Department astir the kidnapping, the country's overseas minister, Claude Joseph, told CNN.
One of the abducted missionaries, an American citizen, besides posted a telephone for assistance successful a WhatsApp radical arsenic the kidnapping was occurring, The Washington Post reported, quoting a idiosyncratic acquainted with the abduction who spoke connected the information of anonymity.
"Please commune for us!! We are being held hostage, they kidnapped our driver. Pray commune pray. We don't cognize wherever they are taking us," the connection said.
It is unclear whether the connection was a video oregon a substance sent to the WhatsApp group, and determination is nary accusation connected the WhatsApp radical itself successful the Washington Post's reporting.
CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of this connection oregon the report.
According to a elder US authoritative acquainted with the situation, the FBI and State Department officials bash not cognize the existent determination of the kidnapped missionaries.
Canadian officials are besides moving with section authorities and "implicated NGOs" to stitchery information, a spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada told CNN.
CNN has reached retired to the Haitian Justice Ministry and the National Police but they person not yet commented.
Indiscriminate kidnappings
Former tract manager for Christian Aid Ministries Hooley said the members of the radical would person been alert of the risks they were taking.
"These are precise dedicated people, radical that person risked their lives, they knew the dangers that they were in, oregon astatine slightest were alert of what could happen, I'm sure," helium said.
Hooley added that helium knew respective of the victims personally. "Two of them are azygous fellas. One was down determination for a while, the different 1 is simply a person of ours who conscionable flew successful connected Friday, and was readying to assistance retired with the Haiti earthquake, the concern down determination successful the south."
"And past there's a young mates determination -- a young mates with 2 children that were besides abducted. We lived with her (the mother) successful Oregon, and knew her household precise well," Hooley said.
Kidnapping successful Haiti is often indiscriminate, with some affluent and mediocre citizens targeted. Several kidnapping victims and their families antecedently told CNN that they were inactive moving to wage disconnected debts, aft borrowing wealth from friends, employers and adjacent banks to wage ransoms.
In a lawsuit that has go notorious crossed the country, a 5-year-old miss was reportedly recovered dormant aboriginal this twelvemonth with signs of strangulation. Her mother, a peanut vendor, told Reuters she had been incapable to travel up with the equivalent of $4,000 for ransom.
Just earlier the missionaries' abduction, a Haitian proscription national had called for an indefinite onslaught starting Monday to protestation the spike successful kidnappings, among different issues.
"We telephone connected the authorities to enactment an extremity to the kidnappings and supply america information oregon for them to resign immediately. We are the astir victims; the proscription assemblage is an casual people for kidnappers each implicit the country," Méhu Changeux, president of the Association of Owners and Drivers of Haiti, told CNN connected Sunday.
"We mislaid galore members to the insecurity and dozens of members person been kidnapped. The latest calamity of the kidnapping of the American missionaries shows nary 1 is harmless successful this country," Changeux said.
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