Released after nearly two weeks
American youtuber & Twitch streamer Addison Pierre Maalouf has been released by his captors after being held hostage in Haiti for over two weeks. Known in the social media frontier as YourFellowArab or just “Arab”, Maalouf had reached fame through his social media videos about the unseen world of criminals, in many gang-afflicted parts of the planet.
Known as a Traveller & Storyteller, Maalouf’s account has over 1.4 million followers on various social media platforms like Twitch & YouTube.
According to sources, Maalouf had set off for Haiti with the intention of speaking with warlord Jimmy Barbeque Cherizier, who is currently the most powerful de facto leader of the nation as well as the leader of the “Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and allies”, a known criminal federation made up of over a dozen Haitian gangs based in the capitol city of Port-au-Prince.
Before leaving for Haiti, the youtuber had posted a tweet saying, “going on another one of those trips. If I die, thanks for watching what I’ve put out. If I live, all glory to God.”
Finally Released : Publicity Stunt or Reality?
He had reached the country on 13th March, but disappeared from all forms of contacts, sparking widespread debate among netizens. According to unverified reports from a local news channel named Haiti24.net, Maalouf and a local Haitian fixer named Sean Roubens Jean Sacra “Serge”, who was working as his guide were taken hostage on 14th March by a local gang named 400 Mawozo, headed by Kingpin Lanmo Sanjou, one of FBI’s most wanted, with a price of $1 million dollars on his head.
The report also suggested that Arab was being held for a ransom of $600,000 dollars of which a partial amount of 40 thousand had been paid so far. As news started spreading another fellow streamer and a friend of Maalouf, named Lalem took to twitter and confirmed the dreadful news tweeting, “Tried keeping it private for 2 weeks, but it’s getting out everywhere now, Yes Arab has been kidnapped in Haiti and we’re working on getting him out. Love yall he’ll be getting out soon”.
At around 10:07 am local time Maalouf’s twitter account posted a video that showed Maalouf and his local guide sitting with the gang-leader Lanmo Sanjou, in which the leader informed that Maalouf and his guide were free to go, unconditionally and without ransom.
While many speculate that the whole thing may have been a publicity stunt from Maalouf, many suspect that warlord Jimmy Barbeque Cherizier, may have something to do with Maalouf’s lucky escape. With friends, family and fans worldwide breathing a sigh of relief, whether Arab gives up on his knack of getting into dangerous situations, only time will tell.
Violent condition of Haiti
In the past few years, gang violence in the small Caribbean nation of Haiti has escalated increasingly, with many public institutions like Schools, Banks and Hospitals being targeted in a series of planned attacks. Just a few weeks ago, American embassy in Haiti airlifted all its personnel after the gangs attacked two high security prisons breaking out over 3,800 convicts.
After the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on 7th July, 2021, acting PM Ariel Henry was sworn in as acting President. Despite his term of office ending in February, he has shown no intentions of stepping down. The last democratic polls in the country were held in 2016 and with no planned schedule for a new election, the current regimes weakness is being preyed upon by Haiti’s criminal organizations.
One of the poorest countries in Latin America, Haiti’s 90% population live below the poverty line. Haiti has been termed as a failed state due to having failed at maintaining a functional democracy. The small nation has been side-lined by the rest of the world despite being plagued by one of the worst Humanitarian crises of our lifetimes.
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