Three of the seven Roman Catholic clerics who were kidnapped in Haiti on April 11 have been released, a spokesperson of the Conference of Bishops of Haiti told AFP on Thursday.
“Three of the seven clerics who were kidnapped on April 11 have been released. The French nations were not released. There are no laypeople among those released,” said Father Loudger Mazile.
A total of ten people, including seven clerics —five Haitians, a French priest and a French nun— were kidnapped last Sunday in Croix-des-Bouquets, near Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, on their way to an ordination ceremony.
The group consisted of four priests and a nun from Haiti as well as two people from western France, a nun from Mayenne and a priest from Ile-de-Vilaine who has been living in Haiti for over thirty years.
The other three people who were kidnapped are members of the family of the priest who was to be ordained.
The kidnappers demanded a million dollars in ransom.
Police suspect the kidnapping was carried out by an armed gang operating in the area called “400 Mawozo,” according to a source close to it.
The Roman Catholic Church called a strike a few days after the kidnapping to protest the lack of action of the authorities and the “kidnapping dictatorship” in the country, as stated by the President of the Conference of Bishops, Monsignor Launay Saturné.
Source: ANA-MPA