U.S. citizens held for ransom in Haiti as violence spirals out of control

An American couple that visited Haiti earlier this month is being held for ransom after being kidnapped, a common crime in the western country as more than 100 kidnappings were reported and 530 killings in the first two weeks of March.

“We didn't really want them to go,” Christie Desormes, Jean-Dickens Toussaint's niece, told Yahoo News.

Abigail and Jean-Dickens Toussaint, both 33, live in Florida with their son who just turned two on Tuesday. According to their family the couple had plans to visit sick relatives and attend a festival in their hometown of Leogane, Haiti, but they never made it to their destination.

“I don't even know if they’re getting clean water or actually being fed or if they have been hurt,” Desmormes said. “We were upset to find out that this even happened. We're trying to put on a brave face for each other and for their kid.”

After arriving at the airport, the Toussaints were met by a family friend to escort them and while they were traveling by bus from the capital city of Port-au-Prince they were confronted by a gang, their family said.

“There's supposed to be this agreement between the buses and the gang, to pay a fee every time they drive from the airport to our town of Leogane uninterrupted, but that bus driver apparently did not pay that fee, so they pulled them over,” Desormes said.

Desormes says her aunt, uncle and family escort were taken as collateral damage. Originally the ransom was set at $6,000 to get them back.

“They gave us names and where to transfer the money via Western Union, and [we] had to pay $2400 in advance, and then they would release our family and then they would get the rest,” Desormes said. “After we sent the advancement, they didn't release them.”

Eleven days later, the Toussaints are still being held hostage. The U.S. Department of State says they are aware of the situation.

“The Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. We are in regular contact with Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and our U.S. Government interagency partners,” a state department spokesperson told Yahoo News in a statement.

Currently Haiti has a level 4 out of 5 travel advisory that warns American citizens to not travel to the country due to the rise of kidnapping, civil unrest and crime.

The U.S Department of State website warns that: “U.S. citizens should depart Haiti now in light of the current security and health situation and infrastructure challenges. Kidnapping is widespread and victims regularly include U.S. citizens.”

The violence in Haiti hit record levels following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, and the country is now overcome with gang violence and one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere.

According to the U.N. as of this year, over 70% of the capital city is controlled by Haitian gangs. “There's a lot of tension. There's a lot of gangs roaming the streets taking parts of the territory,” Desmores said.

According to the UN Secretary-General's January report to the security council, the gang-related violence in Haiti has reached unprecedented levels. In 2022, authorities reported 2,183 homicides and 1,359 kidnappings, which is double the amount of the reported cases in 2021.

“The kidnappings that [are] happening in Haiti is directly tied to weak U.S policy to regulate guns that are coming from the U.S and going into the Caribbean and more specifically to Haiti,”Jean Eddy Saint Paul, a native of Haiti and director of CUNY Haitian Studies Institute, told Yahoo News. “Most of the guns that are killing people in Haiti came directly from the United States of America.”

Jean says he hasn’t been back to his home country in years because it is too dangerous, “my soul, my umbilical cord is connected to Haiti, this is where I was born, this is where my family were born,” he said.

But according to Jean, kidnapping is not a part of the political history of Haiti. “Kidnapping has a history and a direct connection to U.S imperialism and in the broader scope Western imperialism,” Jean said.

According to the U.N, the violence in Haiti has displaced over 160,000 people and the number will continue to surge if things don’t change.

The Toussaints were supposed to return home to their two year old child and family on March 21, but now the family says they are working with the FBI and pleading for their safe return.

“The FBI is investigating and they're also helping us get in contact with the gang again, so that we can begin negotiations with their help,” Desmores said.

Earlier this week the First Haitian Baptist Church of Pompano Beach, FL posted on their Facebook asking their congregation to pray for the Tousaints.

“Along with our prayers, we are also challenging our government officials to use their resources in bringing these two back to us where they belong,” the church said in a post on Facebook.

The couple are constituents of Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick district who was unavailable for an interview but her office mentioned that she had plans to meet with the U.S Department of State on Tuesday about the ongoing investigation.