The U.S. State Department has announced rewards of US$1 million dollars for information which will lead to the arrest of the leadership of Haiti's 400 Mawozo gang which last year kidnapped several U.S. citizens for ransom.

Nearly 200 people have been killed in about three weeks after gangs started a war over territory near the Haitian capital city of Port-au-Prince, a recent report by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) said.

The leader of Haiti’s ‘400 Mawozo gang’ has been indicted for his alleged role in the kidnapping of 16 American missionaries – including small children and a baby – last fall and holding them in captivity for more than 60 days before they managed to escape.