By Group defends work after missionaries captured in Haiti – New York Daily News
After more than a week of negotiations aimed at bringing home a group of missionaries being held hostage in Haiti, the religious organization that sent them there has issued a defense of their work in dangerous nations.
One Canadian and 16 Americans were kidnapped on Oct. 16 by the “400 Mawozo” gang in Croix-des-Bouquets, a northeast suburb outside the nation’s capital city of Port-au-Prince, which is part of the region controlled by the kidnappers. The group, made up of 12 adults and five children, including an 8-month-old, had just visited an orphanage as part of their mission work through Christian Aid Ministries.
The gang’s leader has since threatened to kill those abducted if his demands are not met. Haitian officials have said the gang is seeking $1 million ransom per person.
A local human rights organization has said that the group’s Haitian driver also was kidnapped.
According to its website, Christian Aid Ministries was founded as a nonprofit in 1981 to “glorify God and help enlarge His kingdom.” Volunteers help provide basic needs like food and clothes, deliver Bibles and help crisis victims in the U.S. and abroad, including in Haiti, where its missionaries “support church planting” and “operate and support clinical facilities to treat the medical health needs of people.”
The religious organization on Tuesday reiterated the mission outlined on its website, emphasizing its volunteers are dedicated to sharing the impact religion has had on their own lives.
“Occasionally we are asked why our workers were in Haiti,” it said. “We want others to enjoy the joy, peace, and redemption we have experienced.”
Christian Aid Ministries added: “We don’t know how God will choose to bring resolution, but we desire that His will be done.”
On Tuesday, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan vowed to discuss the situation at the upcoming G20 meeting, adding that he has personally provided daily briefings to President Joe Biden regarding the ongoing hostage situation. He also call on the U.S. and other countries to step up and provide Haiti the kind of investment and international aid it requires.
“We are looking at every possible option for how to go about doing that,” Sullivan said.
“But these things operate and have operated in Haiti historically on different timetables, under different circumstances. And so we need to manage this situation as carefully as possible so that at the end of the day, we achieve our objective, which is the safe return of every single one of those (abducted).”
With News Wire Services
