FBI working with state department to free US missionaries kidnapped in Haiti

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is been working with State Department diplomats to locate and free a group of 18 US missionaries including their children kidnapped in Haiti.

"The president has been informed and receives regular updates on what the State Department and the FBI are doing to bring these people home safely," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.

"The FBI is part of a coordinated U.S. government effort to engage U.S. citizens in security," Psaki said, refusing to give further details due to "operational considerations".

A Haitian gang known for brutal abduction and murder has been accused by Port-au-Prince of kidnapping U.S. missionaries, including 12 adults and five children. It was the largest reported abduction of its kind in recent years.

The abducted group from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries consisted of 16 U.S. citizens in a Canadian national. They were in a bus after a visit to an orphanage when they were abducted, the group said.

"We are leaving on the third day and since seventeen of our workers have been abducted by a gang in Haiti," Christian Aid Ministries said in a statement on Monday.

"Civilian authorities in Haiti and the United States are aware of what has happened and offer assistance," said the group, founded and supported by Amish and Mennonite church groups.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and monitor serious bidding," the statement said.

The streets of the Haiti capital Port-au-Prince were quiet on Monday as Haitians went on a general strike to protest the escalation of insecurity and gang violence following the abduction of a group of Christian missionaries.

"The people can no longer take it," said Holin Alexis, a participating motorcycle taxi driver.

Barricades of burnt tires have closed some streets in the capital and in other cities, with some people throwing rocks at the occasional cars passing by, the Associated Press reported.

Haiti has seen a sharp rise in abductions following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July as armed gangs take advantage of the spread of insecurity, food shortages and the government's political crisis.

The 400 Mawozo gangs have torn down the mission group in Ganthier, east of the capital of Port-au-Prince, Haitian police inspector Frantz Champagne told the AP news agency on Sunday.

The gang, which translates its name to about 400 "inexperienced men", controls the Croix-des-Bouquets region, which includes the whole country where the abduction took place.

The Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince has achieved an alarming increase in kidnappings in Haiti, with more than 600 in the first three months of 2021, up from 231 in the corresponding period of 2020.

"The police have proved that they are not capable of confronting the corridors, which are better organized and which control more and more territory," said Gedeon Jean, director of the center, the Agence France-Presse.