An American YouTube personality who was kidnapped two weeks ago by a gang leader in Haiti was released over the weekend and was on his way home to the United States on Monday morning, according to his father.
The American, Adisson Pierre Maalouf, 26, had traveled from the neighboring Dominican Republic to interview Jimmy Chérizier, a former police officer and gang leader known as Barbecue, according to Mr. Maalouf’s family, who spoke to The New York Times after his release.
Kidnapped with him was Mr. Maalouf’s guide, a Haitian journalist named Jean Sacra Sean Roubens. Mr. Roubens confirmed to The Times that he had also been released.
Mr. Maalouf said on social media that he had been abducted by a rival gang leader and held in a “concrete shack surrounded by barbed wire” in a remote location.
“Can’t give any more detail till I’m home, but all I will say for now is — Glory be to God,” he said on the social media platform X.
