[국제]’April Fool’s Day’… 4 people including a pastor were kidnapped by gunmen during social media broadcasts

During a service in Haiti, armed men attacked and kidnapped church officials. The congregation was shocked as the site was exposed through Facebook Live.

According to the American daily newspaper Miami Herald and others, the kidnapping took place on the evening of the 1st (local time) at the 7th Sabbath Adventist Church outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. Church officials were holding a service for about 2 hours and 20 minutes under the theme of ’15 days of Thanksgiving and praise’.

In the live video, a male and female choir who was singing while the pastor was preaching was suddenly startled and trying to escape. Then, a man in a black shirt with a machine gun approaches, threatens them, and drags everyone away.

As the worship day was April Fools’ Day, the members who watched the worship thought that the video was’April Fools’ joke’ and considered it insignificant. However, the kidnapping was not a play or an April Fool’s Day joke, it was a real situation. Two women in the studio at the time escaped desperately, but it is known that four church officials, including the pastor, were kidnapped by armed men and taken away.

Among the abductees were Welmir Jean Pierre, a famous Haitian musician and pianist based in Europe.

In Haiti, where security is unstable, there are frequent cases of kidnapping people and demanding a ransom. Last month, there was a case in which Belize national team players who visited Haiti for the World Cup qualifiers were almost kidnapped by an armed man and then tried to stop. On the 18th of last month, as criminal cases such as kidnappings occurred, the Haiti government declared a one-month emergency, saying that some areas were seized by criminal gangs.

YTN PLUS Reporter Jeong Yoon-joo
([email protected])

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]