Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty

woman carries bucket of water on the street in Croix des Bouquets, 12.9kms (8 miles) to the northeast of Port-au-Prince, on December 30, 2019.

Seventeen missionaries, including 16 Americans and one Canadian,have been kidnappedduring a trip to an orphanage in Haiti, the Christian Aid Ministries says.

“We request urgent prayer for the group of Christian Aid Ministries workers who were abducted while on a trip to visit an orphanage on Saturday, October 16,” the organization said. “We are seeking God’s direction for a resolution, and authorities are seeking ways to help.”

Haitian police inspector Frantz Champagne toldThe Associated Pressthat the 400 Mawozo gang was behind the abduction in Ganthier.

A source at the U.S. embassy told ABC News that 19 people in total were captured in the attack, as two French priests were also abducted at the same spot earlier in the day.

Haiti’s foreign minister Claude Joseph told CNN that the nation’sofficials are in touch with the U.S. State Departmentregarding the incident. The location of the victims remains unknown.

Tom E Puskar/AP/Shutterstock

Christian Aid Ministries in Berlin, Ohio is seen here on . A group of 17 missionaries including children has been kidnapped by a gang in Haiti, according to a voice message sent to various religious missions by an organization with direct knowledge of the incident. The message from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries said the missionaries were on their way home from building an orphanage Haiti US Kidnapped Missionaries, Berlin, United States - 17 Oct 2021

The Washington Postobtained an audio recordingdescribed to the outlet as a “prayer alert” from Christian Aid Ministries that detailed the incident. The outlet reported a voice in the clip revealed that the field director’s family and one other person were the only ones to stay behind at the organization’s base in Titanyen.

“The mission field director and the American embassy are working to see what can be done,” the voice said, per thePost.

ThePostalso shared a WhatsApp group message from one of the abducted Americans, courtesy of a person familiar with the matter, who posted as the kidnapping was occurring.

“Please pray for us!! We are being held hostage, they kidnapped our driver,” the message said. “Pray pray pray. We don’t know where they are taking us.”

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Gang violence has been on the rise in Haiti, the AP reports, following a string of catastrophes in recent months.

In July, presidentJovenel Moïse was assassinatedat his private home, while the first lady was injured. Joseph took over the position in the interim.

The following month, a7.2 earthquake hitthe island and killed over 2,200 people, before Tropical Storm Grace hit Hispaniola just days later.

source: people.com