Eight people, including an Irish missionary and a three-year-old child, are missing after gunmen stormed an orphanage in Haiti.
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See subscription optionsThe latest attack early on Sunday was in an area controlled by a powerful collection of armed gangs.
Authorities scrambled to relocate dozens of children and staff from the Saint-Hélène orphanage, run by Nos Petits Frères et Sœurs, an international charity with offices in Mexico and France.
The orphanage cares for more than 240 children, according to its website.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. The area is controlled by a gang federation known as "Viv Ansanm", which the United States this year designated a foreign terrorist organisation.
Among those abducted was Gena Heraty, an Irish missionary who has worked in Haiti since 1993 and oversaw the orphanage's special needs program for children and adults. She was assaulted in 2013 when suspects broke into the orphanage and killed her colleague, according to Irish media.
Her family issued a statement saying they were "absolutely devastated" by Sunday's kidnappings: "The situation is evolving and deeply worrying."
Sunday marked the latest high-profile kidnapping involving a foreign missionary. In 2021, the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 missionaries, including five children, from a U.S.-based organization in Ganthier, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The majority were held captive for 61 days.
The lush green and incredibly steep mountains where the orphanage is located has been under attack by heavily armed gangs since January. The latest attack over the weekend forced farmers in the area to flee.
Simon Harris, Ireland's deputy prime minister, said in a statement that the kidnappings of Heraty and the others were "deeply worrying," and called for their immediate release.
At least 175 people in Haiti were reported kidnapped from April to the end of June this year, with 37 per cent of those cases occurring in Port-au-Prince.
The United Nations said a majority of those kidnappings were blamed on the Grand Ravine and Village de Dieu gangs, which form part of the Viv Ansanm federation.
Australian Associated Press
