According to the president of an association of drivers, the removal was orchestrated by a gang in Port-au-Prince. The country’s authorities fail to stem endemic insecurity.
Le Monde with AFP
Thirty-eight people who were preparing to travel by minibus to the south of Haiti were taken hostage on Friday, June 10, by a gang in the capital Port-au-Prince.
“Two buses had just been filled with passengers for Miragoâne [city located 100 km west of Port-au-Prince] when the types of village of God seized them,” said, to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Mehu Changeux, director of the Association of Haiti owners and drivers (APCH), in allusion on behalf of a slum of Port-au-Prince serving as headquarters for a powerful gang.
“Each bus had 18 people, in addition to the drivers” he added, without providing details on the motivations of the authors.
This group removal comes as the grip of armed bands on the country of the Caribbean is increasing without the police being able to stem this insecurity.
access to The capital controlled by gangs
Since June 1, 2021, the authorities have lost control of the only road access which links Port-au-Prince to the southern country because, in the space of two kilometers, the national road is completely under control of armed bands. It is on this axis, at the western exit of the Haitian capital, that the abduction of the 38 people occurred.
Mehu Changux assures that its organization “always asks the drivers not to take this route until the State has restored security”. But this call for caution cannot be observed by the poorest of the inhabitants: travel by the sole alternative road, non -carrosable, costs much more, especially due to unofficial tolls. “There is continuing to be buses that take the risk because some passengers do not have the economic means to pay transport by the mountain road,” regrets Mr. Changeux.
Last weekend, three Turkish young women were released after a month spent in captivity. They had been removed by the criminal band which controls the whole region located east of Port-au-Prince, to the border with the Dominican Republic. This gang, which diverted the bus in which they were traveling from Santo Domingo, still holds five Turkish nationals.
For the month of May alone, at least 200 kidnappings were identified in Haiti by the United Nations, mostly in Port-au-Prince.