Members of the notorious criminal gang, “400 Mawozo”, are said to be behind the kidnapping of 17 people, including eight Turkish nationals on Sunday.
Reports said that a tourist transport bus of the Metro Tours Company left the Dominican Republic on Sunday afternoon with the 17 people on board including eight Haitian nationals when it was intercepted by armed men from the “400 Mawozo” gang in the Papaye locality, the same area where the Dominican Republic diplomat, Carlos Guillén Tatis, had been kidnapped on Friday, April 29
Haitian media have given the names of both the Haitian and Turkish nationals abducted as well as the driver who is from the Dominican Republic.
The Turkish consul in Haiti, Hugues Josue said that during their abduction, they got off the bus and had time to contact their organization…
Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities said an officer from the Departmental Unit for Maintaining Order (UDMO) and a public security patrol from Croix-des-Bouquets, on Sunday afternoon, freed a 19
They said one of the kidnappers, Jephté Joseph, 21, who was watching the hostage was arrested.
Haitian police struggle to contain the gang violence, kidnappings of foreigners and others by criminal gangs, and demanding large ransoms, have been on the rise, according to reports.
According to Haiti’s Centre for Analysis and Research on Human Rights, in 2021, more than 1,200 people were kidnapped – only 81 of whom were foreign nationals.
Ten percent were so-called “collective abductions,” where gang members abducted a group of people, sometimes by storming church services and kidnapping clergy in the middle of mass.
Last year the Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group and demanded a $1 million ransom per person, the group included five children. The missionaries later escaped. The reputed leader of the infamous gang has been extradited to the United States to face charges related to the kidnapping of missionaries.
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