Americas

Home page

Americas

Haiti gangs kidnap 38 passengers on minibuses

11 June 2022 08:11 (UTC +04:00)

Gang members in Haiti on Friday kidnapped 38 people as they were riding in minibuses out of the capital Port-au-Prince, bound for the south of the country, said the head of a drivers' association, APA reports citing AFP.

"Two buses had just been filled with passengers bound for Miragoane," a town some 62 miles (100 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince, "when the guys from Village de Dieu seized them," said Mehu Changeux, president of the association of owners and drivers of Haiti, referring to one of the capital's slums controlled by a powerful gang.

"Each bus had 18 people, in addition to the drivers," Changeux said, without saying if ransoms had been demanded.

The mass kidnapping came as Haiti find itself in the grip of armed gangs, whom police have failed to confront.

Note that in the month of May alone, at least 200 kidnappings were recorded by the UN, overwhelmingly in Port-au-Prince.