Eight Turkish citizens were kidnapped on Sunday afternoon by a gang in Haiti, AFP learned on Monday May 9, a kidnapping closer to the capital Port-au-Prince where the villainous activity of gangs has, since the beginning of May , further aggravated an already critical security situation.
Read alsoAt least 75 killed since late April in clashes between gangs in Haiti
The Turkish nationals were on a bus from the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince when they were abducted east of the capital, between the communes of Croix-des-Bouquets and Ganthier, a announced to AFP on Monday the honorary consul of Turkey in Haiti. “During their abduction, as they disembarked from the bus in which they were, they had time to contact their organization“, specified Hugues Josué. “They are eight and they are cooperators for an organization promoting education“, he added.
“A sensitive file”
Other people on board were also kidnapped, according to local media. The young Turkish nationals, five men and three women, are aged between 20 and 26, according to details provided to AFP by the honorary consul. The Haitian Association for the Promotion of Education (Ashape), of which they are members, has been working in the country since 2019 and provides language courses and Muslim religious education, according to its website. On the sidelines of the presentation of his half-year report to the press Monday noon, Frantz Elbé, director general of the Haitian police, only indicated that his institution “is informed and (that) she is working on this case“, without providing further details on what he considers to be”a sensitive file“.
For several years, one of the most powerful gangs in Haiti, called “400 mawozo”, controls the area between the Dominican Republic and Port-au-Prince, where the Turkish nationals were kidnapped. Last April, this armed gang kidnapped ten people, including two French Catholic clerics. In the fall, a group of 17 North American missionaries and their family members, including five children, aged 8 months to 15 years, had been held hostage by this gang for several weeks. For decades, armed gangs have raged in the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, but they have drastically increased their hold across the Haitian capital and the country in recent years, multiplying murders and villainous kidnappings.
Twenty kidnappings since the beginning of May
More than twenty kidnappings for ransom have been committed by gangs since the beginning of May in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince. On Monday, two charity hospitals in the capital announced that they were closing their activities “until further notice“Following the kidnapping of one of their pediatricians on Thursday. “Without the presence of health personnel, victims on many occasions, unable to reach health facilities safely, health care cannot be delivered.», Specifies the public note signed by Richard Fréchette, president of the foundation Our little brothers and sisters, present in Haiti for more than 30 years.
Barricades of burning tires were also erected in the city center of the capital on Monday, near the general tax office, a sign of the anger of employees and residents following the kidnapping, near his home on Sunday. , a member of the management of the public administration. This upsurge in kidnapping cases comes after two weeks of violent clashes between gangs in the northern suburbs of Port-au-Prince, pushing more than 9,000 residents to flee these neighborhoods.
Read alsoDoctors Without Borders suspends its activities in a poor district of Haiti
At least 75 civilians were killed, including women and children, during this violence between two rival gangs, announced Friday the UN, which reported the existence, citing local sources, of “acts of sexual violence, including the gang rape of children as young as 10, to terrorize and intimidate local populations“. Three weeks after the start of this violence, the Haitian government has not yet commented on this situation or on the resurgence of kidnappings, a context which plunges the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince into constant fear.