American missionary couple and Haitian missionary leader killed by gang in Haiti

(RNS) — A Haitian man and an American couple who worked for a Christian missionary organization were killed by gang members Thursday night near Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The group was reportedly kidnapped earlier in the evening after returning from a youth event at a church.

Natalie and Davey Lloyd moved to Haiti from Oklahoma in 2022 to work for Mission in Haiti Inc. The third person killed was Jude Monteith, the organization’s Haitian director.

Davie’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd, founded the organization in 2000.shared news of the couple’s deaths in a Facebook post around 2 a.m. Friday, saying they were shot by gang members around 9 p.m.

“We are devastated,” the couple wrote in the post.

Natalie’s father, Republican Rep. Ben Baker of Missouri, shared the news on Facebook along with a photo of the couple, expressing his sadness and asking for prayers.

“My heart is shattered,” Baker posted. “I have never felt such pain before. As many of you know my daughter and son-in-law, Davey and Natalie Lloyd, are full-time missionaries in Haiti. They were attacked by a gang this evening and both were killed. They have both gone to heaven.”

According to a post shared on the group’s Facebook page before their deaths were confirmed, the three victims said they had been ambushed and attacked by “a group of men in three trucks” shortly after leaving a youth event.

“Their lives are in danger. I have asked everyone I know to send police armored cars to evacuate them to safety but no one is willing to help,” the anonymous poster wrote.

The mission organization, Mission in Haiti, provides a variety of services for the children, including two permanent homes, a school and a bakery.“We believe the door is still open for the children of Haiti to be transformed by the gospel,” the organization’s website says.

The organization runs the House of Mercy near Port-au-Prince, which is home to 36 children, and the Good Hope Boys’ Home, which can accommodate up to 25. It also runs the Bon Espoir School (Good Hope School), a church and a bakery that employs adults who grew up in Haiti’s missions and provides bread for the residential center.

While gang violence has forced many schools to close, Mission in Haiti has remained open. In a May 2023 website update, the organization called the area “relatively peaceful” and said that gang leaders there control one of Haiti’s “more moderate gangs.”

“The gang is working to keep the ‘bad guys’ out of the area and hopes they can stay strong enough to keep a semblance of peace in the area,” the site said.

Christian missionaries in Haiti are increasingly being targeted by gang members for kidnapping, as criminal groups use kidnapping to earn ransom. UNICEF has reported an increase in kidnappings since 2023, with women and children most at risk.

Seventeen Christian Aid Ministry missionaries — 16 Americans and one Canadian — were kidnapped by a gang in October 2021. Twelve escaped and the rest were later released.

The country has been in turmoil for the past few years, exacerbated by the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. In the months following the president’s assassination, armed gangs vying for control of the capital banded together and took advantage of the political unrest.

After Moïse’s death, the government was run by Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose legitimacy was fiercely contested through street protests and who resigned in April this year. A transitional council was appointed to lead the country after Henry’s departure.

The gangs now control 90 percent of the capital and have blocked several roads leading to Port-au-Prince and the city’s main port, disrupting the flow of goods into the country. Gang violence has killed or injured 2,500 people and forced 35,000 to flee since January, according to the United Nations.

The country saw a surge in violence in March after gang members released thousands of inmates from the capital’s two largest prisons.

A Kenyan police-led peacekeeping contingent from Chile, Jamaica, Grenada, Burundi and Nigeria is due to arrive in Port-au-Prince this week to help Haitian police in their anti-gang operations. A total of 1,000 Kenyan police are expected to be deployed.