In the midst of violence and upheaval in the capital of Haiti, a nurse and her child who are both Americans have been abducted, according to a nonprofit related to the lady.
Sandro Dorsainvil, the organization’s founder and director, and his wife Alix Dorsainvil, a community health nurse, were kidnapped Thursday morning from a site close to Port-au-Prince, according to a statement from El Roi Haiti.
The two were captured, according to the organization, “while working in our community ministry.”
The State Department confirmed on Saturday that it is aware of the kidnapping reports, is in touch with the Haitian government, & “will continuing to work with them as well as our U.S. government interagency partners.”
The safety and security of American people abroad is the top concern for the U.S. Department of State and its embassies and consulates, according to a statement from the department.
The kidnappings happened on the same day that the State Department issued an evacuation order for non-emergency U.S. government personnel and their families from Haiti “due to kidnapping, civil unrest, crime, and poor health care infrastructure.”
According to a United Nations assessment published last month, gangs have mostly taken over Port au Prince’s street topography, causing crime and anarchy to run wild and forcing more than 165,00 Haitians to flee their country.
“Gang attacks, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, and violence based on gender have grown into a part of every day life of Haitians, compelling locals to flee their residences,” the U.N. stated in June.
In Port au Prince, some Haitians have set up camp close to the American embassy in search of security and stability.
The anarchy was caused by the assassination of President Jovenel Mose in 2021, as the country’s government never fully recovered from the sudden change to its leadership.
Haiti has also faced with political unrest, violence, and extreme poverty this century in addition to being struck by two terrible earthquakes, one of which occurred shortly after Mose was killed.
A Christian charity called El Roi Haiti declared that it would continue to advocate for Alix Dorsainvil and her child’s release.
“We continued to work with our partners that have reliable relationships to ensure their safe return,” it read.
According to the charity, Dorsainvil is “deeply compassionate” as well as a “loving individual who considers Haiti her homeland & the Haitian people as her neighbors and family.”
Alix Dorsainvil claims to be a nurse from New Hampshire who has been asked by Sandro Dorsainvil to care for schoolchildren in Haiti in a clip from El Roi Haiti that was uploaded to Vimeo about three years ago.
She was heard on the video saying, “He said it was a big need they had.” I first didn’t believe there would be much of a need there. However, there were a ton of cases there when I arrived.
Sandro Dorsainvil’s El Roi Haiti bio states that he grew up in a difficult area of Port-au-Prince. Before beginning his college studies @ Liberty University in Virginia, he went a Christian high school in the US, the report stated.
In the end, he went back home and established the NGO with the hope that religion could help the nation recover.