Irish missionary among eight missing after gunmen storm orphanage
The attack is just the latest in an area controlled by a powerful array of armed gangs.
A three-year-old child is also among the missing following the incident, at the Saint-Hélène orphanage in Kenscoff.
The orphanage is run by the international charity Nos Petits Frères et Sœurs and cares for more than 240 children, according to its website.
Among those kidnapped early on Sunday was Gena Heraty, an Irish missionary who has worked in Haiti since 1993.
According to Irish media, Ms Heraty, who oversees the orphanage's special needs programme for children and adults, was assaulted in 2013 when people broke into the orphanage and killed her colleague.
Her family issued a statement saying they were 'absolutely devastated' by Sunday's kidnappings.
'The situation is evolving and deeply worrying,' they said.
Sunday's incident marked the latest high-profile kidnapping involving a foreign missionary.
In 2021, the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 missionaries from a US-based organisation in Ganthier, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The majority were held captive for 61 days.
Kenscoff is a once peaceful community in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
The doors to the orphanage remained closed on Monday as Haiti's Institute of Social Welfare and Research worked with UNICEF to identify sites where children and employees could be relocated.
No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, which took place in an area controlled by a gang federation known as ' Viv Ansanm'. Earlier this year, the US designated it as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Simon Harris, Ireland's deputy prime minister, said in a statement that the kidnappings of Ms Heraty and the others were 'deeply worrying", and called for their immediate release.
In a past interview with the Irish Independent newspaper, Ms Heraty recalled being threatened with death when suspects broke into the orphanage in 2013.
'They were quite aggressive. One had a hammer, one had a gun,' she said.
Ms Heraty said her colleague was killed with a hammer after he rushed to help her and others.
'The last place you would expect a violent death to happen in Haiti would be in a house with special-needs people," she said.
"Life is just not fair. We know that. We just have to accept it.'
At least 175 people in Haiti were reported kidnapped from April to the end of June this year, with 37 per cent of those cases occurring in Port-au-Prince.
The United Nations said a majority of those kidnappings were blamed on the Grand Ravine and Village de Dieu gangs, which form part of the Viv Ansanm federation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Sexual violence in conflicts worldwide increased by 25% last year, UN says
Sexual violence in conflicts worldwide increased by 25% last year, with the highest number of cases in the Central African Republic, Congo, Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan, according to a U.N. report released Thursday. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' annual report said more than 4,600 people survived sexual violence in 2024, with armed groups carrying out the majority of the abuse but some by government forces. He stressed that the U.N.-verified figures don't reflect the global scale and prevalence of these crimes. The report's blacklist names 63 government and non-government parties in a dozen countries suspected of committing or being responsible for rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict, including Hamas militants, whose attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. Over 70% of those listed have appeared on the report's blacklist annex for five years or more without creating steps to prevent the violence, the U.N. chief said. U.N. warns Israel and Russia about allegations For the first time, the report includes two parties that have been notified the U.N. has 'credible information' that could put them on next year's blacklist if they don't take preventive actions: Israel's military and security forces over allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinians primarily in prisons and detention, and Russian forces and affiliated armed groups against Ukrainian prisoners of war. Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, who circulated a letter Tuesday from Guterres about the country's forces being put on notice, said the allegations 'are steeped in biased publications.' 'The U.N. must focus on the shocking war crimes and sexual violence of Hamas and the release of all hostages,' he said. Russia's U.N. mission said it had no comment on the secretary-general's warning. The 34-page report said 'conflict-related sexual violence' refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced marriage and other forms of sexual violence. The majority of victims are women and girls. 'In 2024, proliferating and escalating conflicts were marked by widespread conflict-related sexual violence, amid record levels of displacement and increased militarization,' Guterres said. 'Sexual violence continued to be used as a tactic of war, torture, terrorism and political repression, while multiple and overlapping political, security and humanitarian crises deepened.' The toll of sexual violence in conflict The U.N. says women and girls were attacked in their homes, on roads and while trying to earn a living, with victims ranging in age from 1 to 75. Reports of summary executions of victims after rape persisted in Congo and Myanmar, it said. In an increasing number of places, the report said armed groups 'used sexual violence as a tactic to gain and consolidate control over territory and lucrative natural resources.' Women and girls perceived to be associated with rival armed groups were targeted with sexual violence in the Central African Republic, Congo and Haiti, it said. In detention facilities, the report said sexual violence was perpetrated 'including as a form of torture,' reportedly in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. 'Most of the reported incidents against men and boys occurred in detention, consistent with previous years, and included rape, threats of rape and the electrocution and beating of genitals,' the report said. U.N. report details where abuse is occurring The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic documented cases of rape, gang rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery affecting 215 women, 191 girls and seven men. In mineral-rich eastern Congo, the peacekeeping mission documented nearly 800 cases last year including including rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage, 'often accompanied by extreme physical violence,' the report said. The number of cases involving the M23 rebel group, now controlling the main city Goma, rose from 43 in 2022 to 152 in 2024, it said. In Sudan, where civil war is raging, the report said groups providing services to victims of sexual violence recorded 221 rape cases against 147 girls and 74 boys, 'with 16% of survivors under five years of age, including four one-year-olds.'
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Blackwater founder to deploy nearly 200 personnel to Haiti as gang violence soars
The security firm of former U.S. Navy Seal Erik Prince will soon deploy nearly 200 personnel from various countries to Haiti as part of a one-year deal to quell gang violence there, a person with knowledge of the plans said Thursday. The deployment by Vectus Global is meant to help the government of Haiti recover vast swaths of territory seized in the past year and now controlled by heavily armed gangs, said the person, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans. The company, which provides logistics, infrastructure, security and defense, is run by Prince, a major donor to U.S. President Donald Trump. Prince previously founded the controversial security firm Blackwater. The deployment was first reported by Reuters. Vectus Global also will assume a long-term role in advising Haiti's government on how to restore revenue collection capabilities once the violence subsides, the person said. A Trump administration official said the U.S. government has no involvement with the hiring of Vectus Global by the Haitian government. The U.S. government is not funding this contract or exercising any oversight, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the situation. The private contractors, which will come from the United States, Europe and other regions, are expected to advise and support Haiti's National Police and a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police officers that is struggling to suppress gang violence. The U.N.-backed mission has 991 personnel, far less than the 2,500 envisioned, and some $112 million in its trust fund — about 14% of the estimated $800 million needed a year, according to a recent U.N. report. The upcoming deployment of private contractors comes after the recent appointment of André Jonas Vladimir Paraison as the country's new police director general. Paraison once served as head of security for Haiti's National Palace and was involved in a new task forced created earlier this year made up of certain police units and private contractors. The task force has operated outside the oversight of Haiti's National Police and employed the use of explosive drones, which some human rights activists have criticized. Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said that while there's an obvious need for more anti-gang operations, 'there is a risk of escalating the conflict without having enough personnel to extinguish the fires that Viv Ansanm can ignite in many places.' Viv Ansanm is a powerful gang federation created in September 2023 that saw the merging of gangs, including G-9 and G-Pèp — once bitter enemies. The United States designated it as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year. The gang federation was responsible for coordinating a series of large-scale attacks early last year that included raids on Haiti's two biggest prisons that led to the release of some 4,000 inmates. Viv Ansanm also forced the closure of Haiti's main international airport for nearly three months, with the violence eventually prompting then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign. Jimmy Chérizier, a leader of Viv Ansanm and best known as Barbeque, recently threatened Paraison. 'Viv Ansanm has a military might that they don't always show,' said Da Rin, the analyst. At least 1,520 people were killed and more than 600 injured from April to the end of June across Haiti. More than 60% of the killings and injuries occurred during operations by security forces against gangs, with another 12% blamed on self-defense groups, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti. Gang violence also has displaced some 1.3 million people in recent years. ___
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Gang kidnapped pregnant woman and threatened to cut her fingers off
Three men have been jailed after kidnapping a pregnant mother from outside her home and threatening to cut her fingers off, the Metropolitan Police have said. Audi Johnson, 35, Ahmad Ghiasi, 26, and Nicholas Mitchell, 55, bundled their victim who was six months pregnant, into the back of a van after she left her north London home on the morning of May 10, 2024. She was blindfolded and bound at the wrist with cable ties by the gang as they sped away, before they fired questions at about her partner where one of them threatened: 'If you lie to me I'm gonna kick the baby out your stomach.' Then a series of phone calls was made to her partner as the gang threatened to cut off her fingers if he did not quickly carry out their demands for money and valuable jewellery, the police said. Johnson, Ghiasi and Mitchell were found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap last month after a six-week trial at Kingston Crown Court. They were members of a London-based gang, who had been contracted to carry out the kidnapping, the force said. The 36 year-old woman said she has not been able to go home since the traumatic ordeal and spent the rest of her pregnancy sleeping on her sister's couch. In her victim impact statement, she told the court: 'The incident ruined my life. I will never be the same person again. I am having to start my life all over again. 'I will forever have fear and paranoia as part of my life now. I didn't deserve to be a victim of what happened to me. And to top it off, it was all made so much worse by being pregnant. 'This will always be something that will be part of my pregnancy, which is meant to be a happy experience, and will always be something that is a part of my daughter.' She was kidnapped as she waited for a cab to take her to a personal training session with her mother and sister. She was walked along the curb close to her Enfield home, when she was suddenly grabbed and thrown into the back of a white Ford Transit van. A police spokesman said the Met's Flying Squad responded to the crime immediately. They tracked the van using CCTV and located the vehicle the same night the hostage was recovered. DNA evidence, fingerprint impressions and mobile phone data were used to identify the suspects. The police said Johnson, of Cranberry Close, Northolt, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and was sentenced to five years and four months. Ghiasi, of Fourth Avenue, Luton, was sentenced to seven years for conspiracy to kidnap. Mitchell, of Mannock Close, Barnet was sentenced to nine years for conspiracy to kidnap.
