Pope Francis is pleading with Haiti’s gangs to release six nuns taken hostage last week — but those kidnappings may just be the start of worse violence ahead for Haiti in the coming weeks.
"In asking fervently for their release," Francis said at the Vatican this week, "I pray for social harmony in [Haiti], and I ask everyone to put a stop to the violence, which causes so much suffering to that dear population."
The Roman Catholic nuns, members of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne, were abducted last Friday while riding a bus. Their kidnappers are reportedly demanding a $3 million ransom.
Kidnappings by the gangs that control much of Haiti are a common plague. But Haiti experts say the shocking abduction of nuns indicates how bad things there stand to get.
A new surge of violence already forced security officials to put Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, under lockdown last Thursday. And they’re bracing for worse between now and Feb. 7 — the day Haiti’s unpopular interim Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, is supposed to give up power under an agreement he signed a year ago with civil society groups.
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That pact promised to produce long overdue national elections, especially a vote for a new President to replace the late Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated in 2021.
Those elections have never materialized. Many of Haiti’s gangs as well as the political opposition want Henry out, but up to now he’s given little sign he’ll leave. If he decides to stay, the country’s crisis will likely deepen.
The U.N. says Haiti's gangs — which now control 80% of Port-au-Prince — were responsible for more than 4,000 murders last year. Police say a former Haitian diplomat, Claude Joazard, was killed in the northern coastal city of Cap-Haitien on Sunday, but it's not clear if his death was gang-related.
A U.N.-backed international police assistance force led by Kenya could help restore order — but Kenya’s Supreme Court has yet to approve it.
The U.N. Security Council, meanwhile, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the delayed election process as well as the ongoing gang crisis.
Haiti's heavily armed gangs get most of their weapons smuggled to them from the U.S., especially Florida and other states with relatively lax gun laws.
