Abducted Haiti Missionaries Describe Daring Escape

Twelve missionaries who were abducted in Haiti have described how they managed to get away on their own, escaping their captors at night and using the stars for navigation to trek through dense bush for hours.

Christian Aid Ministries announced the group were finally free last week, after being held captive since October when the gang that seized them had demanded a ransom of $1m per hostage.

It is not clear if any money was paid.

In total, 17 missionaries and their families were abducted, after they had visited an orphanage in the town of Ganthier, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Five others had already been released.

Their ordeal brought international attention to Haiti’s growing problem of gang abductions.

Addressing a news conference in Ohio, spokesman Weston Showalter said, “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 at.

Evading “numerous guards”, the group travelled in the direction of a mountain that they had seen days earlier, using constellations to guide them. It was not immediately clear how they managed to escape the guards.

The group included a married couple, a 10-month old baby, and children aged three, 14 and 15. There were also four adult men and two women.

Around dawn they found a person with a phone who helped them call authorities.

The group was later flown back to Florida on a US Coast Guard flight, Christian Aid Ministries (CAM) said. Most have now returned to their families.