YouTube star YourFellowArab is being held for ransom in Haiti, where he’d traveled to interview the country’s most powerful gang leader known as “Barbecue.”
YourFellowArab is the YouTube name for Addison Pierre Maalouf, an Atlanta-based vlogger and gamer who shifted to traveling around the world to interview cartel leaders and other dangerous people.
And there are few more dangerous than “Barbecue,” the nickname for former Haitian police Officer Jimmy Cherizier. He’s believed to head up the gangs that control the vast majority of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
He’s also claimed responsibility for a massive jailbreak that freed nearly 4,000 from Haiti’s largest prisons in March.
Another online streamer, known as Lalem, says Maalouf was kidnapped about two weeks ago by a Haitian gang known as 400 Mawozo, which is demanding a $400,000 ransom.
Lalem has also posted on X that he believes Maalouf will be freed soon.
Another YouTuber, known as YouTuber Lord Miles, posted that they know Maalouf’s whereabouts and they’re confident he’ll be released soon.
Maalouf, himself, acknowledged the danger he was putting himself in, posting on X: “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.”