A Haitian gang that kidnapped a group of American and Canadian missionaries is asking for $17 million – or $1 million each – to release them.
The gang demanded $1 million for each of the 17 missionaries who were kidnapped on Saturday during a trip to an orphanage in Haiti, US media reported.
Around 1,000 students have been kidnapped in the west African country since December after gangs started to hit schools. Most have been released after negotiations, but scores are still being held in forest camps.
Following jury selection, opening statements and testimony will begin on August 18, and the trial is expected to last at least four weeks.
Heavily armed bandits have recently stepped up attacks on schools, kidnapping students for ransom, prompting a military response.
In all, thirty-four of the 121 kidnapped children are now free since five others had escaped earlier and another was released on health grounds, according to a school official.
Zamfara police say armed gangs released 100 Manawa village residents, including children, after 42 days following negotiations.
The envoy and other senior diplomats would be back to Kabul until all the security threats are removed, Afghanistan said, a day after the daughter of the Afghan ambassador was briefly kidnapped and tortured in Islamabad.
French reporter Olivier Dubois says in a video he was kidnapped by Al Qaeda-linked group JNIM on April 8 while he was working in Mali’s northern city of Gao.
The kidnappers have demanded a $1 million ransom for the group, which includes one French priest and one French nun.
Aizada Kanatbekova was abducted for marriage in a practice known as bride kidnapping on April 5 and found strangled two days later, with her suspected murderer who had died from seemingly self-inflicted knife wounds.
Nigerian army rescued 180 people in the early hours of Friday, but around 30 male and female students remain unaccounted for after gunmen attacked a forestry college in northwestern Kaduna state overnight.
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