Lebanese-American YouTuber Released By Kidnappers

Last month, Lebanese-American YouTuber Addison Pierre Maalouf was kidnapped during a journey he took to Haiti to an interview with one of the nation’s most prominent gang figures, known as “Barbecue.”

The YouTuber, better known as YourFellowArab, went viral for posting “danger tourism” videos that put him in high-risk situations. Some of his most viral videos involve him spending the day with gangs, members of the Mexican cartel, and kingpins among other wanted individuals.

His trip to Haiti took a horrific turn when a Haitian gang kidnapped him and requested a $600,000 ransom for his return. Maalouf recently took to X to announce that he was released after two weeks in captivity:

Unsurprisingly, as most YouTubers are, Maalouf turned out to be a bit of a twat. You can see his tweet below taking a swipe at the pride flag for seemingly no reason.

“When you’re kidnapped in the middle of the Haitian Desert 60 minutes away from any civilization in a concrete shack surrounded by barbed wire, you don’t pray to a rainbow flag, you pray to God.”

He also said that he will be posting the footage in an upcoming YouTube video (um?). This led viewers to speculate whether the kidnapping was staged or not.

In any case, we’re happy that Maalouf was safely returned to his family and hope that this type of exploitative content creation is discouraged and replaced with more responsible forms of storytelling.

For more news like this, check out this section on our website.