According to a humanitarian group with which the woman is involved, an American mother and her child have been kidnapped in Haiti.
On Saturday, El Roi Haiti revealed that Alix Dorsainvil and her child had been abducted from the nonprofit’s site outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where she had been serving as part of the organization’s community mission.
Dorsainvil was mentioned as being a New Hampshire native and the school and community nurse for El Roi Haiti. She is the wife of El Roi Haiti’s director, Sandro Dorsainvil, according to the Christian humanitarian aid organization.
“Alix is a deeply compassionate and loving person who considers Haiti her home and the Haitian people her friends and family,” the organization said. “Alix has worked tirelessly as our school and community nurse to bring relief to those who are suffering as she loves and serves the people of Haiti in the name of Jesus.”
Dorsainvil relocated to Haiti after her husband requested her to provide nursing services at a school, as stated in a promotional video produced by the organization three years ago.
“Haitians are such a resilient people,” Dorsainvil said in the video. “They’re full of joy and life and love and I’m so blessed to be able to know so many amazing Haitians.”
In its statement on Saturday, El Roi Haiti said that it was working with “partners and trusted relationships to secure [the] safe return” of Dorsainvil and the child.
“We are aware of reports of the kidnapping of two US citizens in Haiti,” an American state department spokesperson said on Saturday to Reuters. “We are in regular contact with Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and our US government interagency partners.”
The offer by Kenya to head a multinational force of 1,000 to improve security in the country was met “with great interest” by Haiti.
“Haiti appreciates this expression of African solidarity and looks forward to welcoming Kenya’s proposed evaluation mission,” the foreign minister, Jean Victor Geneus, said on Sunday.
Kenya announced the previous day that it was prepared to deploy 1,000 police agents to help train and support their Haitian counterparts in combating the violent gangs that have taken control of much of Port-au-Prince.
A Kenyan-led deployment would still require a mandate from the UN security council, as well as formal agreement by local authorities. The council has asked the secretary general, António Guterres, to present by mid-August a report on possible options for Haiti, including a UN-led mission.
Kenya’s foreign minister, Alfred Mutua, said Kenya would send an “evaluation mission” to Haiti in coming weeks.
US diplomats have been actively seeking a country to head a multinational force. On Thursday, the state department issued an advisory about travel to Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and poor health care infrastructure”.
The advisory added: “Kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include US citizens. Kidnappers may use sophisticated planning or take advantage of unplanned opportunities, and even convoys have been attacked. Kidnapping cases often involve ransom negotiations and US citizen victims have been physically harmed during kidnappings.”
The advisory also ordered the departure of family members of US government employees as well non-emergency American government employees. It also urged American citizens in Haiti to depart “as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transportation options, in light of the current security situation and infrastructure challenges”.
According to a United Nations report from earlier this month, gang violence has displaced over 165,000 Haitians within their own country. More than 46,000 individuals have been affected by the floods, and about 13,000 have been forced to relocate, according to the report.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported earlier this week that on July 21, “unidentified people” kidnapped Blondine Tanis, a radio reporter for El Roi Haiti in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince.
“The unstable political situation in Haiti has created conditions in which kidnapping is a major risk for everyone in the country, including journalists,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator. “Those holding radio journalist Blondine Tanis must release her immediately and unconditionally.”
