All the Catholic religious kidnapped in Haiti at the beginning of April have been released, announced Friday, April 30, the Society of Priests of Saint-Jacques, to which they belong. “We found our confreres, the nuns and members of the family of Father Jean Anel Joseph in good health,” said the missionary institute in a press release, without specifying whether a ransom was paid. “Our thanks also go to the ambassadors of France and the United States for their discreet and effective diplomatic support as well as to all the political and moral authorities of the country and to the governments for their unwavering support,” added the institute.
Three of the seven religious kidnapped had already been released a week ago in the country plagued by insecurity and criminal kidnappings. In all, ten people were kidnapped on April 11 in Croix-des-Bouquets, near the capital Port-au-Prince, while they were on their way to the installation of a new priest. The kidnappers demanded a million dollars in ransom.
A nun from Mayenne and a priest from Ille-et-Vilaine
The group included four Haitian priests and a nun as well as two French from the west of France: a nun from the department of Mayenne and a priest from Ille-et-Vilaine who has lived in Haiti for more than thirty years. . Three people, members of the family of a Haitian priest, Father Jean Anel Joseph, who was not among those kidnapped, had also been kidnapped. Haitians are predominantly of the Catholic faith and their country is the poorest on the American continent. The five priests are part of the Society of Priests of Saint-Jacques, established in Guiclan (Finistère, western France)
This missionary society has about fifteen priests in Haiti, out of a total of 80 priests, and about twenty seminarians also present in France, Brazil and Canada. The kidnapping of clerics, which shocked public opinion beyond the borders of the island, caused a deep political crisis in the country, plagued by an upsurge in kidnappings for ransom in recent months in Port-au-Prince as in the provinces, testifying to the growing influence of armed gangs on Haitian territory.
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