Social media star YourFellowArab has been taken hostage in Haiti by one of the gangs that have become de facto leaders amid the violence that has devastated the Caribbean island.
YourFellowArab, whose real name is Addison Pierre Maalouf, was on the island to interview the man popularly known as Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cerisier, the most powerful gang leader in the country.
On March 14, Maalouf was kidnapped by a gang known as 400 Mawozo, led by boss Lanmo 100 jou, who belongs to the FBI. most wanted list. Maalouf is detained and demands a ransom of $600,000.
About $40,000 has been paid to the kidnappers so far, according to reports Haiti24. They also took a Haitian colleague.
Maalouf, of Lebanese descent, resides in Atlanta. On his official website, Maalouf refers to himself as a “comedian, professional gamer and content creator… Man of the people.”
One of Maalouf’s colleagues, Twitch streamer Lalem, confirmed in an X post that his friend had been taken hostage. He ended the message on a positive note saying, “It’s coming out soon.”
YourFellowArab, whose real name is Addison Pierre Maalouf, was on the island to interview the man popularly known as Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cerisier, shown here.
Maalouf, shown here on his Instagram page, is based in Atlanta.
Lalem reposted the last video Maalouf posted, showing him in Haiti. He tells viewers about the dangers of being in the country right now.
Maalouf says his crew had intended to travel to Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, but were hoping to leave in the early hours of the morning to get there by daylight.
“All it takes is one stupid gangbanger with an AK-47 for something to go wrong,” he tells his followers.
Lalem also asked those who had Maalouf’s phone number not to send him text messages for their own safety.
When Maalouf left for Haiti, he tweeted: ‘We’re going on another one of those trips. If I die, thanks for seeing what I posted. If I live, all the glory to God.’
The FBI is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Lanmo 100 jou.
He is accused of kidnapping 17 Christian missionaries in Haiti, including five children, one of them just 8 months old, in October 2021.
As a result of that crime, he is charged with conspiracy to commit hostage taking and hostage taking in the United States.
The FBI is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Lanmo 100 jou, shown here. He is believed to be behind YourFellowArab’s kidnapping
On Thursday, a UN rights expert for the conflict-torn Caribbean nation said the country needed between 4,000 and 5,000 international police to deal with “catastrophic” gang violence targeting key people, hospitals , schools, banks and other critical institutions.
Last July, William O’Neill said Haiti needed between 1,000 and 2,000 trained international police to deal with gangs.
Today, he said, the situation is so much worse that double that figure and more is needed to help the Haitian National Police regain control of security and stop human rights abuses.
O’Neill spoke at a news conference launching a UN Human Rights Office report he helped produce that called for immediate action to address the “cataclysmic” situation in Haiti, where corruption, impunity and Poor governance, compounded by rising gang violence, have eroded the rule of law. and he brought state institutions “to the brink of collapse.”
The report, which covers the five-month period ending in February, said gangs continue to recruit and abuse boys and girls, and some children are killed for trying to escape.
Gangs also continue to use sexual violence “to brutalize, punish and control people,” the report says, citing women raped during neighborhood gang attacks, “in many cases after seeing their husbands murdered in front of them.” “.
In 2023, the number of people killed and injured as a result of gang violence increased significantly: 4,451 dead and 1,668 injured, according to the report. And until March 22 of this year, the numbers skyrocketed to 1,554 dead and 826 injured.
As a result of the escalation of gang violence, the so-called “self-defense brigades” have taken the law into their own hands, according to the report, and “at least 528 cases of lynchings were reported in 2023 and another 59 in 2024.” .
A woman is comforted by others at the crime scene where an ambulance was removing the bodies of several people, who were shot to death this morning amid escalating gang violence, in Port-au-Prince.
Ezechiel Alexandre, alleged leader of the Baz Pilat gang, meets with residents of the Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood, which was left deserted due to gang violence.
People burn rubbish near bodies while at least 10 bodies of gang members lie in the streets after gunfire exchanged between armed gangs in Petion-Ville
The human rights report reiterated the need for the urgent deployment of a multinational security mission to help Haiti’s police stop the violence and restore the rule of law.
And he urged stricter national and international controls to curb the trafficking of weapons and ammunition to gangs and others, much of it from the United States.
O’Neill, appointed by the Geneva-based UN human rights chief, said the “alarming” attacks on key institutions and individuals began in the last four or five weeks: 18 attacks on hospitals, attacks on schools , including a complex that burned three days ago, and one of Haiti’s elite academic institutions was burned down Wednesday night.
Gangs have also broken into Haiti’s two largest prisons.
Additionally, he said, the gangs have made two attempts to take control of the National Palace and are attacking human rights defenders, journalists and people they consider threats to their continued control of the territory.
Another new element documented by the UN human rights team in Haiti, O’Neill said, is the use of children not only as messengers, lookouts, sex slaves and cooks, but now young adolescents are involved in activities and attacks top-of-the-line in quantities never seen before. before.
The closure of the airport and roads has also left some 1.4 million Haitians on the brink of famine.
And the number of people fleeing their homes has risen from 50,000 last July, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration, to at least 362,000, “and I would say, given the last three or four weeks, probably we are close to 400,000, if not more than that,” the UN envoy said.
O’Neill said restoring security is key and getting the international security force on the ground in Haiti is critical and urgent.
Getting the transitional presidential council officially installed and active is also “crucial” and “absolutely vital,” O’Neill said, expressing hope that this could possibly happen next week.
For one thing, Kenyan President William Ruto has said he will not deploy police to lead the multinational security operation until he has a Haitian counterpart, the U.N. expert said.
O’Neill said the trust fund to finance the international police operation also desperately needs funds.
Haiti requested an international force to combat gangs in October 2022, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a force last July, he said.
“We are still waiting and every day lost means more people die, more women and girls are raped and more people flee their homes,” O’Neill said. “So the sooner the better.”