A gang which kidnapped a group of missionaries from the United States and Canada in Haiti on Saturday is demanding US $1 million in ransom for each of the 17 people it is holding, the Haitian justice minister has told the Wall Street Journal.
The gang is notorious for kidnapping groups of people for ransom.
The same gang, 400 Mazowo, abducted a group of Catholic clergy in April.
The clergy were later released but it is not clear if a ransom was paid.
All of those kidnapped are US citizens, except one who is a Canadian national.
Among those seized are five men, seven women and five children. The youngest child is reportedly only two years old.
They worked for Christian Aid Ministries, a non-profit missionary organisation based in the US state of Ohio, which supplies Haitian children with shelter, food and clothing.
The missionaries were returning from a visit to an orphanage when the bus they were travelling in was seized by the gang members on a main road in a town east of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
