It was unknown whether the captors asked for a ransom payment, they added.
A spokesman for the United States government said he was aware of the information about the kidnapping but had nothing to add.
“The welfare and safety of American citizens abroad is one of our top priorities at the State Department,” he said, local media reported.
On Saturday morning, the band named 400 Mawozo it diverted several cars that were traveling on routes it controls and kidnapped Americans as well as Haitian citizens, sources quoted by AFP said.
The missionaries and their relatives were returning from visiting an orphanage located about 30 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, they added.
In Haiti, a deep political crisis paralyzes socioeconomic development for many years, and the assassination of the president Jovenel Moise On July 7, an armed commando in his private residence plunged the Caribbean country even more into uncertainty.
The armed gangs, which for years have controlled the poorest neighborhoods of the Haitian capital, in recent months have extended their power to Port-au-Prince and its surroundings, where the number of kidnappings for extortion is on the rise.
In the first three months of 2021, more than 600 crimes of this type were registered, against 231 in the same period of 2020, according to the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, based in the Haitian capital.
The kidnapping of the missionaries comes after the UN Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to extend the political mission in the country.
A few days earlier, high-level US officials had visited Haiti and pledged more resources for the National Police, including another $ 15 million to help reduce gang violence, which this year has displaced thousands of Haitians now living in temporary shelters in increasingly unsanitary conditions.
The meeting was attended by the Haitian Police Chief and the United States Undersecretary of State for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights, Uzra Zeya.
“Dismantling violent gangs is vital for the stability and citizen security of Haiti,” Zeya tweeted recently.
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