After the Angelus Leo XIV noted that in Haiti “there are repeated reports of murders, violence of all kinds, human trafficking, forced exiles, and kidnappings.”
A statement released by the Holy See Press Office highlights that the pontiff considered that “the situation of the Haitian people is increasingly desperate” and made “a fervent appeal to all those responsible to immediately release the hostages.”
The Bishop of Rome also requested “concrete support from the international community to create the social and institutional conditions that will allow Haitians to live in peace.”
On August 4, an armed group attacked the Sainte-Helene orphanage, southeast of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, and kidnapped Irish missionary Gena Heraty, as well as seven staff members and a three-year-old disabled child, according to a report published on the Vatican News website.
This incident highlighted the worsening insecurity in the Caribbean nation, marked by institutional collapse and the dominance of armed gangs that, between April and June of this year alone, murdered more than 1,500 people, while also carrying out hundreds of kidnappings and sexual assaults.
The gangs, which have been operating increasingly since 2024, have already extended their influence far beyond the capital, while the national police, insufficient in number and logistics, struggle to ensure order and security, leaving the country experiencing one of its most extreme humanitarian crises.
jdt/oda/ort