Haiti: Kidnappings Back in the Headlines

Kidnappings are once again in the headlines in Haiti, where a wave of kidnappings is adding to the fears of the people who are suffering the severity of the economic, political and social crisis.

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The national highway linking Carrefour Joffe to Port-de-Paix is a real threat to the lives of travelers, who can also be robbed and raped, and carriers lose the goods they are transporting and even their trucks.

In the last two weeks alone, a dozen cases of kidnapping have been recorded.

The local radio recalls that in one of these episodes the bandits intercepted a public transport bus and the relatives of the kidnapped have to pay an exaggerated sum of US dollars for their release.

Pope Francis said on Sunday before tens of thousands of faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square: "I have received with sorrow the news of the kidnapping in Haiti of a group of people, among them six nuns."

His Holiness asked earnestly for their release, and commented that he prays for social harmony in the Caribbean country and invited everyone to put an end to the violence that causes so much suffering among the population.

On the afternoon of January 19, the nuns of the Congregation of the Sisters of Sant'Anna were kidnapped by a criminal gang, together with a teacher and the driver of the bus in which they were traveling on a humanitarian mission.

Recently, the head of the Élohim Medical Complex, Dr. Berthony Francois, was released after being kidnapped by a criminal gang in the center of Haiti's capital.

Francois was kidnapped on January 11 and in order to free him the family had to pay a ransom, the amount of which is still unknown.

In this regard, the secretary general of the Haitian Medical Association, Dr. Ardouin Louis-Charles, denounced that the existing problems in the health sector in Haiti are compounded by the damage caused by armed gangs carrying out extortive kidnappings against doctors.

Louis-Charles protested against the negative impacts of insecurity in his sector, where many professionals are murdered, victims of kidnappings, and others are missing.

One of them is physician Samson Marseille, head of the Department of Epidemiology, Laboratory and Research of the Ministry of Public Health and Population, kidnapped on July 28, 2023, Louis-Charles commented in a statement.

"Some fellow doctors never regained their freedom, even after paying ransoms," the doctor lamented.