Who is 400 Mawozo Gang That Blamed for Kidnapping in Haiti

Who is Mawozo Gang In Haiti That Blamed for Kidnapping 17 US and Canadian Missionaries?

The 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped the group — which also included some elderly people — in Ganthier, a commune that lies east of the capital of Port-au-Prince, Haitian police inspector Frantz Champagne told media.

Who are they, 400 Mawozo Gang?

“This is the type of kidnapping that 400 Mawozo do; we call it a collective kidnapping where they kidnap any entire bus or car,” said Gédéon Jean, who runs the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince, which monitors kidnapping in the country. Jean said the gang is responsible for about 80% of the kidnappings taking place in Haiti.

The Mawozo Gang, whose name roughly translates to 400 “inexperienced men," controls the Croix-des-Bouquets area that includes Ganthier, where they carry out kidnappings and carjackings and extort business owners, according to authorities.

Croix-des-Bouquets, one of the suburbs now under control by the gang, has become a near ghost town, with many residents fleeing the day-to-day violence. The once bustling area now lacks the poor street vendors who once lined the sidewalks, some of whom had been kidnapped by the gang for what little they had in their pockets or told to sell what few possessions they have at home, including radios or refrigerators, to pay off the ransom. By some estimates, gangs now control about half the capital.

The gang allegedly recruits children, forcing them to attack people they've kidnapped and even target churches that were once thought as off-limits. Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, busloads of passengers and others as they grow more powerful.

Nearly a year ago, Haitian police issued a wanted poster for the gang's alleged leader, Wilson Joseph, on charges including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, auto theft and the hijacking of trucks carrying goods. He goes by the nickname “Lanmò Sanjou,” which means “death doesn’t know which day it’s coming.”

Joseph, who could not be immediately reached for comment, has posted videos detailing the alleged crimes the gang has committed in recent years.

Once, when the gang opened fire on a small bus carrying several passengers and killed an infant, Wilson said it was not their fault because the bus driver refused to stop. In a more recent video, he appears holding a bottle of alcohol surrounded by heavily armed men. Another video from June shows people inside a church fleeing as gunfire erupted outside on a Saturday morning. The gang was accused of raiding the area and setting cars on fire.

The gang, known as “400 Mawozo,” controls the area that the missionaries were abducted from in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, the capital.

With every new generation of gangs that crop up in Haiti, new lows inch further toward normalization. Gangs have plagued Port-au-Prince over the past two decades, but were often used for political means — such as voter suppression — by powerful politicians. They have grown into a force that is now seemingly uncontrollable, thriving in the economic malaise and desperation that deepens every year, with independent gangs mushrooming across the capital, Nytimes reported.

While older, more established gangs trafficked in kidnapping or carrying out the will of their political patrons, newer gangs like “400 Mawozo” are raping women and recruiting children, forcing the youth in their neighborhood to beat up those they captured, training up a newer, more violent generation of members. Churches, once untouchable, are now a frequent target, with priests kidnapped mid-sermon.

Locals are fed up with the violence, which prevents them from making a livelihood and prevents their children from attending school. Some started a petition in recent days to protest the region’s rising gang violence, pointing to the “400 Mawozo” gang and calling on the police to take action. The transportation industry has also announced a general strike for Monday and Tuesday in Port-au-Prince to protest the gangs and insecurity. The action may turn into a more general one as calls have gone out to stay home across sectors and storefronts because of insecurity and fuel shortages in the capital, according to NyTimes.

Haiti Police kill 10 alleged Mawozo gang members in special operation

Haiti Police kill 10 alleged Mawozo gang members in special operation

The Haitian National Police carried out an operation in September 2021 that resulted in the deaths of 10 members of the “400 Mawozo” gang over the weekend, local radio reported. Police also recovered several vehicles during this offensive.

Members of the Mawozo gang have claimed responsibility for numerous kidnapping and shootouts with rivals over the past several months. They have been particularly active in the Croix-des-Bouquet area, where fights for street turf between gangs have driven regular residents out of their homes to seek safety.

Meanwhile, a shooting on Sunday left one dead and three others wounded in Delmas, Port-au-Prince, according to local radio. Armed individuals traveling by motorcycles opened fire at a motorcycle station at Delmas 43.

Haiti Kidnapping

Haiti is once again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished in recent months, after President Jovenel Moïse was fatally shot at his private residence on July 7 and a 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in August.

At least 328 kidnappings were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, according to a report issued last month by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti known as BINUH.

Christian Aid Ministries in Berlin, Ohio, said the missionaries were on their way home from building an orphanage when they were kidnapped. CREDIT:AP

The missionary group offers Bible classes, runs a medical clinic, helps orphans and distributes seeds to farmers, among other efforts in Haiti, according to its annual report.

The gang members kidnapped the group after they left an orphanage in the Caribbean nation, where violence has surged since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July and an earthquake in August, CNN and the New York Times reported.

Christian Aid Ministries provided no information about where the group may have been taken or on efforts to free them, beyond saying “we are seeking God’s direction for a resolution, and authorities are seeking ways to help”.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is in touch with Haitian authorities to try to resolve the case.

Kidnapping has been on the rise for months in Haiti as the impoverished country’s economy worsens, though abductions of foreigners are relatively rare.

Victims generally come from the Haitian middle class - teachers, priests, civil servants, small business owners - who cannot afford bodyguards but can scrape together a ransom.

Who were the missionaries kidnapped in Haiti by 400 Mawozo?

Police confirmed that 17 US missionaries were kidnapped in Haiti on October 16, 2021.

A missionary group including 16 Americans and one Canadian were kidnapped in Haiti while on a trip to an orphanage, the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries group said on Sunday.

“We request urgent prayer for the group of Christian Aid Ministries workers who were abducted while on a trip to visit an orphanage on Saturday, October 16,” it said in a statement, saying seven women, five men and five children were taken.

The group was reportedly taken in the area of La Tremblay after returning from visiting an orphanage, Hiti Times reported.

Christian Aid Ministries provided no information about where the group may have been taken or on efforts to free them, beyond saying “we are seeking God’s direction for a resolution, and authorities are seeking ways to help”.