Several passengers on a bus from Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, to Port-au-Prince, were kidnapped on Wednesday afternoon by gang members in the suburbs of the Haitian capital, said the Haiti police on Thursday.
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“A Capital Coach Line bus was hijacked by heavily armed bandits on Wednesday around 2:30 p.m.,” a Haitian national police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Authorities could not confirm the number of people abducted, but the bus was carrying 37 passengers, company owner Roosevelt Jean-Francois told Haitian media.
The flight attendant, injured in the attack, was hospitalized, he added.
The police said they had recovered “at least seven people who were on board the bus”, as well as the vehicle.
The driver, of Dominican nationality, is “detained by the bandits”, they specified.
For several years, criminal gangs have controlled the area between the Haitian-Dominican border and Port-au-Prince, and have kidnapped or hijacked convoys of goods.
In May 2022, a coach from another company operating between Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince had already been hijacked in this area by gang members. The criminal network then held passengers captive, including eight young Turkish citizens, released after more than a month.
Following this attack, transport companies had suspended their cross-border activity for several months.
Stuck in a deep political crisis for years, Haiti no longer has any elected representative at the national level for lack of elections held on time.
The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 accelerated the territorial hold of gangs.