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Extra.ie
5 days ago
- Extra.ie
Gang's 'ransom demand' for return of Mayo aid worker Gena Heraty
The Haitian paramilitary group that kidnapped Mayo woman Gena Heraty has made a ransom demand, a local NGO source has said. Discussions have taken place between Nos Petits Frères et Soeurs (NPFS, Our Little Brothers and Sisters), the organisation for which Ms Heraty works, and the paramilitary group 'Live Together', which is based in Delmas, in the western suburbs of Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. However, a well-placed Haitian NGO source, who is familiar with Ms Heraty's work, told yesterday that the gang might not have taken the Mayo woman to Port-au-Prince. Pic: University of Limerick/RollingNews 'There are many empty houses in the area, because so many people have fled the violence. The gangs take over these houses. I have seen it myself,' she said. The woman asked not to be named because she feared retribution against her or the NGO for which she works. Speaking in Derrynane, Co. Kerry yesterday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Ms Heraty, who is in her mid-50s, is the 'manifestation of the very best of missionary endeavour, particularly working for children with special needs'. Pic: Leah Farrell/ He said every effort is being made to secure her release, adding: 'We would appeal to those who have kidnapped her and those in the orphanage to release them, not to harm them. Gena has done a lot of good for people, and we earnestly appeal for their release.' previously revealed the Live Together group had emerged as the chief suspects in the abduction of Mr Heraty and seven others from a Haitian orphanage. Residents in the Haitian town of Kenscoff have described scenes of 'complete chaos' as the group launched repeated raids on their neighbourhoods in recent weeks. On Saturday, masked Haitian police arrested a former senator with alleged links to the group. Pic: Viatores Christi Dublin/PA Wire A special Mass was held on Monday in Cushlough, near Westport in Co. Mayo, for Ms Heraty and her colleagues. Ms Heraty, who is originally from Westport, was kidnapped in the early hours of Monday morning along with one child and six other adults. Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris said the Government 'will continue to leave no stone unturned to ensure Gena and her colleagues are released'. Ms Heraty has been in Haiti for 33 years and has been working to support children with special needs. The Mayo woman is very well-known in and around the commune of Kenscoff, which is approximately 10km southeast of Port-au-Prince. In a statement, her family said they continue to monitor the situation, which they have described as 'evolving and deeply worrying'. The dead in Kenscoff in recent months include pastors, teachers and children. Ms Heraty is the director of special needs programmes at NPFS, an organisation that supports children living with disabilities.
Extra.ie
7 days ago
- Politics
- Extra.ie
Fears as Irish aid worker among eight kidnapped from Haitian orphanage
A Paramilitary gang has emerged as the chief suspects in the abduction of an Irish aid worker and seven others from an orphanage in Haiti. Residents in the Haitian town of Kenscoff have described scenes of 'complete chaos' as the group – called 'Live Together' – launched repeated raids on their neighbourhoods in recent weeks. Police have arrested a former senator with alleged links to the group. Fatima Jean-Jacques, the manager of My Green 509, an NGO in Kenscoff, told that her staff had to flee the town, and that her NGO shut for two months this summer to avoid attacks from the gang. A Paramilitary gang has emerged as the chief suspects in the abduction of an Irish aid worker and seven others from an orphanage in Haiti. Pic: Getty Images Ms Jean-Jacques, who attends St Nicolas, the same Kenscoff church as the nuns who run the orphanage, said there has been 'complete chaos' in the town in recent months. She said Mayo native Gena Heraty was kidnapped 'solely for money' and that Haiti has been slipping into chaos and gang fighting since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021. She said the orphanage caters for local children and is located in the mountains. A Mass was held last night for Ms Heraty and her colleagues in Cushlough, near Westport, Co. Mayo. Ms Heraty, from Westport, was kidnapped in the early hours of yesterday morning with one child and six other adults. A Mass was held last night for Irish aid worker Ms Heraty and her colleagues in Cushlough, near Westport, Co. Mayo. Pic: Conor McKeown Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris said the Government 'will continue to leave no stone unturned to ensure Gena and her colleagues are released'. Ms Heraty has been in Haiti for 33 years, working to help children with special needs in the island nation. She is well known around the commune of Kenscoff, about 10km southeast of the capital, Port-au-Prince. In a statement, her family said they are monitoring the situation, which they described as 'evolving and deeply worrying'. Ms Heraty is the director of special needs programmes at Nos Petits Frères et Sœurs (NPFS), an organisation that supports young people with disabilities. Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris said the Government 'will continue to leave no stone unturned to ensure the Irish aid worker and her colleagues are released'. Pic: Sam Boal/Collins Photos NPFS is part of the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) network, founded in 1954 by Father William B. Wasson in Mexico. Kenscoff mayor Jean Massillon told The Associated Press in February that the town was under almost continuous attack by the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, with gunmen going from home to home and indiscriminately opening fire. According to AP, Viv Ansanm, which means 'Live Together,' formed in September 2023 as a coalition of two gang federations that were previously enemies. It was responsible for several attacks on critical government infrastructure in February, which eventually led to the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. The dead in Kenscoff in recent months include pastors, teachers and children. The attack on the town that began in January has left over 1,660 people homeless, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Irish aid worker Ms Heraty has lived in Haiti for three decades and has been the victim of extreme violence before. Pic: University of Limerick/RollingNews A former senator was charged with conspiring against the state and financing criminal organisations for allegedly supporting Live Together. Nenel Cassy was arrested on Saturday at a restaurant in Petionville, a wealthy district in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's National Police said in a Facebook post. The police shared photos of the former senator in handcuffs next to heavily armed officers wearing ski masks. Cassy was designated as a corrupt actor by the US State Department in 2023. He was accused by Haiti's police of backing the attacks on Kenscoff. A Heraty family spokeswoman said: 'We… are absolutely devastated by the awful news that Gena and seven of her colleagues were kidnapped from the orphanage grounds in Kenscoff, Haiti, on August 3, 2025. Gena has lived and worked in Haiti since 1993… The situation is evolving and deeply worrying. 'We are working closely with NPFS in Haiti and Ireland, the Irish Government, and international partners who are doing everything possible to ensure the [immediate] release of Gena and her colleagues. 'NPFS Haiti is working actively to ensure the ongoing safety and well-being of all the children and workers at the orphanage in Kenscoff during this challenging time. We ask that you keep Gena and her colleagues in your hearts as we pray for their safe return. 'Out of respect for the ongoing efforts and for Gena's safety, we are not in a position to share further details at this time.' Ms Heraty has lived in Haiti for three decades and has been the victim of extreme violence before. In 2013, she was struck several times with a hammer before two men used the same weapon to kill Haitian Edward Major in an attack at the orphanage from which she was kidnapped. Mr Major was killed as he tried to stop the robbery. Ms Heraty, who had been punched and hit with the hammer, was in a nearby bedroom protecting seven special needs children as the night watchman was murdered. 'We didn't know how they had killed him, we heard so much shouting and noise and banging, but we didn't hear a gunshot,' she told local media at the time. 'So we realised that they had killed him with the hammer. They must have knocked him on the ground, and they continued to beat him, I don't know.' The Department of Foreign Affairs has vowed to do all in its power to get Ms Heraty, her colleagues and an innocent child to safety.
The Guardian
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
US designates two powerful Haitian gangs as terrorist groups
The United States has designated a powerful Haitian gang alliance, whose members have taken control of almost all the capital city as a 'transnational terrorist group'. The criminal coalition known as Viv Ansanm (Live Together), and another faction, the Gran Grif gang, which in October took responsibility for a shocking massacre of at least 115 people in the agricultural town of Pont-Sondé, were both covered by the move on Friday. 'They are a direct threat to U.S. national security interests in our region,' the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in a statement, adding that providing material support or resources to the gangs could lead to 'criminal charges and inadmissibility or removal from the United States'. The conflict in Haiti has been met with little international response, while neighboring countries, including the US, have continued to deport migrants back to the Caribbean nation despite United Nations pleas not to due to humanitarian concerns. More than 1 million people have been displaced by the conflict, and tens of thousands more in recent weeks, as the violence has spread to central Haiti, forcing more health facilities to shut their doors and pushing more people into severe food insecurity. Frozen US funding for security efforts and the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, as well as other cuts, also complicate the situation. The latest designations come after the US in February designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, alongside a number of other organized crime groups across Latin America, including Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, as global terrorist organizations. It was unclear what, if any, impact the terrorist designation would have regarding Haiti. Those who do business in Haiti also could be affected by the new designation. Gangs control the areas surrounding a key fuel depot and the country's biggest and most important port, as well as the main roads that lead in and out of the capital, where they charge tolls. 'It could function as a de facto embargo,' said Jake Johnston, the international research director at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. 'The gangs exercise tremendous control over the commerce of the country,' he said. 'Doing any kind of business with Haiti or in Haiti is going to carry much greater risk.' Armed groups in Haiti have made significant gains in the first part of 2025, as an under-resourced, UN-backed security mission has stalled, and along with police has been unable to hold off advances of the heavily-armed and well-funded gangs. The UN has called for tougher measures to prevent guns being trafficked to the Haitian gangs, especially from the US, which it said was the major source of illegal firearms in Haiti via ports in Florida. Haiti has not held an election since 2016 and the man elected president then, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021.
The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Haitians fear the imminent fall of Port-au-Prince to rebel gangs: ‘We will die standing'
By day, the stressed-out Haitian police officer patrols the streets of his beleaguered city with an Israeli assault rifle to do his bit to resist the onslaught of the gangs. By night, the 28-year-old returns home to his increasingly empty neighbourhood wondering what calamity may unfold as he rests. 'Yesterday afternoon … there was panic, heavy gunfire ... It was tense … there was continuous gunfire throughout the day,' the officer said this week as the battle for control of Port-au-Prince raged on. 'I wondered if by the time I woke up the next morning, I would still recognise the city,' added the officer, a member of a specialised rapid-response unit tasked with thwarting the advance of the gangs. 'I fear we'll wake up to the announcement that Port-au-Prince has fallen.' The officer, who asked not to be named, is not alone in his trepidation. The year-old criminal insurrection in Haiti's capital has plumbed new depths in recent days, fuelling speculation that the entire city – the third-largest in the Caribbean – may be on the verge of falling into the hands of a coalition of heavily armed gangs called Viv Ansanm (Live Together). Frantz Duval, the head of Haiti's oldest newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, warned in a despondent editorial that the fall of Haiti's capital could be imminent. 'Like Phnom Penh overrun by the Khmer Rouge, Saigon swallowed by north Vietnamese troops, Tripoli after Muammar Gaddafi's fall, Sana'a seized by the Houthis, or Kabul taken by the Taliban – Port-au-Prince has been hanging by a thread for long enough that one must now fear the rumours and cries of anguish are not mere echoes, but the sound of its final collapse,' he wrote. Duval said that since the criminal uprising began in February 2024 'the situation has spiralled completely out of control'. Just over a year later, Port-au-Prince is on the brink, with at least 60,000 people fleeing their homes over the past month to escape the fighting, according to UN estimates. More than a million have been displaced since the mutiny was launched. 'In recent hours, countless ministries, public services and families have fled areas that were once considered safe,' Duval reported, as gang combatants continued to advance, burning buildings and threatening to completely commandeer Haiti's capital. 'The gangs' assaults, punctuated by bursts of automatic gunfire … leave flight as the only option,' Duval wrote. Yet for most Haitians, escape is now impossible, he added: 'Every exit from the capital is under the control of armed groups.' 'Fear is written all over people's faces,' said Rosy Auguste Ducéna, a human-rights activist who works with the victims of gang violence and has spent recent days watching displaced people stream past her group's offices carrying suitcases and bags. 'It feels like the population is suffering while the authorities stand by and do nothing.' The disintegration of Port-au-Prince has been a torturous and gradual process, rooted in centuries of colonial exploitation, foreign meddling, brutal dictatorship, political corruption and dysfunction, and a series of devastating natural disasters such as the 2010 earthquake. Now, some fear the security situation could be close to completely unraveling, with a succession of once-safe areas such as Solino and Nazon falling under the control of gangs, aid workers from the medical group Médecins Sans Frontières coming under fire, and the headquarters of Haiti's oldest radio station being torched. Earlier this month, the city's mayor, Youri Chevry, admitted that his government only controlled about 30% of the city, with several key areas 'in a state of war'. On Wednesday, thousands of protesters took to the streets to denounce the violence – and the government's failure to contain it. 'We are ready to die to defend our neighborhoods, our families, and our homes. We are ready to take responsibility. If we must die, we will die standing, without surrendering,' one protester told Le Nouvelliste, as armed self-defense groups erected roadblocks to defend communities yet to be conquered by the gangs. William O'Neill, a UN human-rights expert who visited Port-au-Prince earlier this month, saw no exaggeration in comparisons with Saigon or Kabul: 'The sense of fear is palpable. The sense [that] the city is on the edge of totally falling into the hands of the gangs is really strong.' 'This is really dramatic. I can't overstate it. It's incredibly urgent and frightening,' warned O'Neill, who said the wealthy hilltop districts around Pétionville were now 'pretty much the last safe areas in the capital'. 'But [for] how long? That's the question,' he added. Things were supposed to have turned out differently. When a transitional government was set up last April, after the prime minister, Ariel Henry, was ousted by the criminal rebellion, its members voiced optimism that the situation could be reversed. 'Today is an important day in the life of our dear republic. This day in effect opens a view to a solution,' declared Henry's temporary replacement, Michel Patrick Boisvert. Three months later, the first members of a planned 2,500-strong, UN-backed security force were deployed, with its commanders also insisting peace could be restored. But so far only about 1,000 members of that Kenya-led operation have reached Haiti. Experts say they are woefully ill-equipped for their fight against Haiti's powerful, politically linked gangs, as is the country's embattled national police force. Last week, a 26-year-old Kenyan police constable, Samuel Tompoi, was buried in Kenya after being shot dead while patrolling – the first member of the mission to die in the line of duty. He left a 23-year-old wife and two children. 'They're outnumbered and outgunned … They need helicopters to move around easily and safely … they need night-vision goggles, body armour, you name it – and they need more people,' O'Neill said, also calling for an arms embargo to stop guns being smuggled to Haiti from the US. In their desperation, Haitian police have started employing dramatic tactics similar to those used on the battlefield in Ukraine. Recent weeks have seen reports of a series of suicide drone attacks, targeting gang bosses who live deep in Port-au-Prince's maze-like shantytowns, surrounded by barricades and guards. 'With kamikaze drones we can reach places police officers can't go,' the police officer explained. Françoise Ponticq, a French dentist who works in a clinic near the partly deserted Champ de Mars plaza, heard 'loud blasts' last week as those drones were detonated, although precisely where she could not say. Of one thing Ponticq was sure: Port-au-Prince had reached a perilous crossroads. 'It's either the gangs take us, or we take them,' she said. 'It's a coin toss, in my opinion.'
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Haiti police raid gang leader's stronghold in capital
The government of Haiti says police have launched a large-scale operation in a shantytown controlled by powerful gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, who is widely known as Barbecue. The authorities say several gang members have been killed in the Lower Delmas area of the capital Port-au-Prince. Local reports say military drones carrying explosives are being used in the operation. Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé praised the assault. He said it was the work of a special task force created two days ago to tackle insecurity. Chérizier, aged 47, is the feared leader of Viv Ansam (Live Together), a coalition of gangs that control much of the city. It is not clear whether Kenyan police officers deployed in Haiti last year to help fight the gangs are involved in the security operation. Last week, a Kenyan police officer - who was on patrol with the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission - was killed in a confrontation with gang members. The men fighting gang leader Barbecue for power in Haiti On patrol with Kenyan forces inside Haiti's gang warzone Gang control in Port-au-Prince has led to an almost complete breakdown of law and order, the collapse of health services and emergence of a food security crisis. More than 5,500 people were killed in gang-related violence in the Caribbean nation in 2024 and more than a million people have fled their homes. Haiti's transitional presidential council, the body created to re-establish democratic order, has made little progress towards organising long-delayed elections.
