Kidnapped American nurse and daughter are released in Haiti, while violence rises
On July 27, Alix Dorsainvil, an American nurse, and her young daughter were kidnapped from the campus of El Roi Haiti, a faith-based humanitarian organization that works in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
On Wednesday, Aug. 9, El Roi Haiti released a brief statement to say that Dorsainvil, who is also the wife of the group’s Haitian director, was released along with her child.
The Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, a nonprofit agency in Haiti that tracks kidnappings and other human rights violations, wrote last week that at least 51 non-Haitians were kidnapped between January and July of this year. During the same time period, some 600 Haitians were also kidnapped.
On Monday, UNICEF released a report saying that kidnappings of children and women are spiking at alarming rates in Haiti. There were nearly 300 cases confirmed in the first six months of 2023, “almost matching the total number documented for the entire previous year, and close to three times more than in 2021.”
“The stories we are hearing from UNICEF colleagues and partners on the ground are shocking and unacceptable,” said UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Garry Conille. “Women and children are not commodities. They are not bargaining chips. And they must never be exposed to such unimaginable violence.”
Mother and daughter were kidnapped the same day the State Department issued a Level 4, Do Not Travel warning and ordered nonemergency U.S. government employees and families to leave Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure.”
According to NPR, the State Department welcomed the news that mother and daughter had been released.
“We have no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” the agency said. Out of respect for the privacy of the victims, officials also said that they would not be releasing further information. “As you can imagine, these individuals have been through a very difficult ordeal, both physically and mentally.” Both may “speak for themselves if and when they feel ready.”
The Associated Press reports that on Thursday afternoon, an aid organization said that Dorsainvil and her daughter are “healthy and unharmed.”
Violent gangs in Haiti are known for mistreating, raping and sometimes killing those they abduct, in a country that has had no functional government since the brutal assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in early July 2021.
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy
