Abducted Haiti Missionaries Describe Daring Escape ¶
Twelve missionaries who were abducted in Haiti managed to escape their captors after a daring trek through dense bush, using the stars for navigation.
The group, including a married couple, a 10-month-old baby, and children aged three, 14, and 15, were held captive since October. They were part of a group of 17 missionaries and their families who were abducted after visiting an orphanage in the town of Ganthier, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
According to Christian Aid Ministries, the group escaped their captors at night and used the stars to navigate through the dense bush for hours. They were able to evade 'numerous guards' and travel in the direction of a mountain that they had seen days earlier.
Speaking at a news conference in Ohio, spokesman Weston Showalter described the group's escape: 'When they sensed the timing was right, they found a way to open the door that was closed and blocked, filed silently to the path they [had] chosen to follow and left the place that they were held.'
The group was later flown back to Florida on a US Coast Guard flight, and most have now returned to their families. The gang that seized them had demanded a ransom of $1m (£740,000) per hostage, but it is unclear if any money was paid.
Christian Aid Ministries, based in the US, describes itself as a channel for Amish, Mennonite, and other Anabaptist groups to minister to physical and spiritual needs around the world. The gang provided food and clean drinking water to the missionaries, but the water for cleaning was contaminated, leading some of the escapees to get skin sores around their mosquito bites.
Mr Showalter denied initial reports that the group's driver was a Haitian local, saying the driver was a Canadian and is now also free.
The group maintained a 24-hour prayer vigil while in captivity and 'boldly reminded' their captors of God and warned them of God's eventual judgment if they continued in their gangs.
There has been no independent confirmation of Mr Showalter's account by either US or Haitian officials.
