U.S. nonprofit extracts American missionaries from Haiti violence
A team of U.S. military veterans reported leading a successful mission this week to rescue an American missionary family from gang violence in Haiti. Zachary and Mica Ennis had been trapped with their infant daughter Niah at a mission in Saint-Marc, about 50 miles up the coast from Port-au-Prince. Project DYNAMO—which describes itself as a veteran-led, donor-funded, international rescue nonprofit group—claimed credit for extracting the family by airplane on Monday.
The Ennis family faced extreme danger while in Haiti. A local gang had decapitated a man outside the Ennis’ mission days before their rescue, Project DYNAMO wrote in a news release Tuesday. Gangs had been targeting the commune because of its high walls and strategic location, the nonprofit group said.
How was the mission carried out? The family evacuated from Sant-Marc in a helicopter that set out from Miami early Monday morning, then transferred to a private plane on the other side of the island in Cap-Haitien. Taking off again, the family landed safely in the Dominican Republic by Monday night where the family received medical evaluations at the American embassy in Santo Domingo. Both the American and Dominican governments aided the nonprofit group’s mission. Project DYNAMO CEO Mario Duarte specifically thanked the Dominican Republic’s National Intelligence Director Maj. Gen. Manuel Claude Pimentel Pérez and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for their support throughout the mission’s planning and execution.
Project DYNAMO says it focuses on rescuing Americans from areas where the United States can’t or won’t launch missions. The search and rescue group launched in 2021 amid the chaotic U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, according to the group’s website. If Americans are in danger Project DYNAMO will respond when no one else will, Duarte said in a news release.
The nonprofit launched the Haiti mission at the petition of Zachary’s mother, Dianne who is from southeastern Texas. Friends and family were praying for the successful rescue and God delivered, Dianne said in the group’s statement.
Dig deeper: Read Travis K. Kircher’s report on a missionary couple killed while serving in Haiti last year.
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