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Popular YouTuber reportedly kidnapped in Haiti, supposedly while trying to meet ‘Barbecue’

March 30, 2024 | | Print Article

A popular YouTube influencer has reportedly been kidnapped in Haiti after trying to meet the notorious gang leader named “Barbecue.”

Atlanta-based influencer Addison Pierre Maalouf, known on YouTube as “Your Fellow Arab,” recently traveled to Haiti to meet Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, the leader of a gang that has seized control of Haiti’s government, according to the New York Post.

“But just 24 hours after he arrived in the country, Maalouf and a Haitian colleague were taken by members of the 400 Mawozo gang [which is separate from Chérizier’s gang] on March 14,” the Post reported on Friday.

Maalouf’s brother, the Twitch streamer known as Lalem, confirmed the kidnapping in tweets published Thursday.

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Maalouf is reportedly being held on a $600,000 ransom, of which only $40,000 has already been paid. According to local reports reviewed by the Daily Mirror, he’s likely being held “in the area of Croix-des-Bouquets.”

The gossip paper further notes that the gang’s boss, Joseph Wilson, is known as Lanmo San Jou, which means “death has no appointed time.”

“The group had previously kidnapped 16 American missionaries and one Canadian in 2021. [Wilson had] threatened to kill those hostages whilst dressed like Baron Samdi, a spirit of the dead in Haitian Vodou,” according to the paper.

The hostages were eventually released, though it’s not clear whether any ransom was ever paid — though Lanmo certainly demanded one.

“The gang’s leader, who goes by the nickname Lanmo Sanjou and has appeared in internet videos wearing a Spider-Man mask, had said he was willing to kill the hostages unless his demands were met,” The Guardian reported at the time.

Dovetailing back to the present, the U.S. State Department has for its part only said that it’s “aware of reports of the kidnapping of a US citizen in Haiti.”

Prior to traveling to Haiti, Maalouf posted the following ominous tweet:

According to fellow YouTube influencer Miles Routledge, he’s in touch with both Maalouf and his kidnappers.

“Arab has been kept in a cage in a place on the eastern outskirts of the Capital, Port-au-Prince,” Routledge tweeted Friday.

He also posted a stunning picture of Maalouf with what appeared to be his abductors.

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Despite all this, Maalouf reportedly remains in good spirits and is already planning his next video, according to Routledge.

“Arab has stated that despite the harships, he’s going to come out with a great video after this and he should be out in no time,” the YouTuber explained in an additional tweet posted Friday.

Maalouf reportedly isn’t alone and was kidnapped alongside Sean Roubens Jean Sacra, a so-called “fixer” whom he met in the Dominican Republic.

“Sean was actually offered to be let go but he’s a great guy and doesn’t want to leave Arab on his own, so he has decided to stay,” Routledge reported in his Friday tweets.

All this comes amid epic chaos in Haiti precipitated by gangs attacking government buildings to voice their displeasure with then-Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who resigned from office earlier this month.

“Politicians across Haiti are scrambling for power after Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced Tuesday that he would resign once a transitional presidential council is created,” the Associated Press reported at the time. “But elbowing their way into the race are powerful gangs that control 80% of Haiti’s capital and demand a say in the future of the troubled country under siege.”

“Shortly before Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he would resign and Caribbean officials announced the creation of a transitional council, Chérizier [“Barbecue”] held an impromptu news conference and rejected any solution led and supported by the international community,” according to the AP.

Vivek Saxena
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