Thirty-eight people who were about to travel by minibus to southern Haiti were taken hostage by a gang in the capital Port-au-Prince on Friday, the president of the drivers association told AFP. .
The two buses were just full of passengers heading to Miragoâne (a town located 100 km west of Port-au-Prince) when men from the Village de Dieu seized them.said Méhu Changeux, head of the Haiti owners and drivers association (APCH), referring to the name of a slum in Port-au-Prince that serves as the headquarters of a powerful gang.
Each bus has 18 people, in addition to the drivershe added, without giving details on the motivations of the authors.
The kidnapping of this group comes as the grip of armed gangs in the Caribbean country rises without the police preventing this insecurity.
Since June 1, 2021, authorities have lost control of the single roadway connecting Port-au-Prince to the southern half of the country, because, within two kilometers, the national road is completely under the control of gangs. armies.
On this axis, at the western exit of the Haitian capital, the kidnapping of 38 people took place.
Méhu Changeux ensures that his organization still asking drivers not to use this road until the state restores security.
But this call for caution cannot be followed by the poorest of residents: travel by the only alternative road, impassable, costs more, especially because of unofficial tolls.
” There are buses that continue to take risks, as some passengers have no economic way to pay for transportation by mountain road. “
Last weekend, three Turkish women were released after a month in captivity.
They were abducted by a criminal gang that controls the entire region east of Port-au-Prince, as far as the Dominican Republic border.
This gang, which hijacked the bus on which they were traveling from Santo Domingo, is still holding five Turkish nationals.
In the month of May alone, at least 200 kidnappings were recorded by the UN in Haiti, most of them in Port-au-Prince.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
