The gang members, who were heavily armed, stopped the bus
Several passengers on a bus from Santo Domingo bound for Port-au-Prince were kidnapped Wednesday afternoon by a gang on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, police said today.
The gang members, who were heavily armed, stopped the Capital Coach Line bus around 2.30pm, said a police officer, who asked not to be named.
Authorities have not yet been able to confirm the number of hostages. The bus was carrying 37 passengers, according to the company’s owner, Roosevelt Jean-Francois. An escort, who was injured during the attack, is being treated. “At least seven people in the vehicle” were also rescued, police said.
For many years, criminal gangs have controlled the zone from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince and often steal trucks with goods or hold hostages. In May 2022 a bus belonging to another company was targeted by a gang in the same area. They then held the passengers hostage, including eight young Turks who were released about a month later. After the attack, cross-border bus services were suspended for several months.
Haiti, mired in a political crisis in recent years, currently has no elected officials at the national level, as elections originally scheduled for November 2021 have been repeatedly postponed. The assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021 accelerated the consolidation of gangs in some areas of the country.
RES-EMP
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