The remaining 12 hostages who on Tuesday rejoined their families after two months in captivity made a daring escape, Christian Aid Ministries officials said.
Originally, the 17 missionaries kidnapped in October were there with Christian Aid Ministries, an organization out of Holmes County. Two people were released in late November and another three people again in early December.
The remainder of the group — which included a married couple, four single men, two women and four children, including a baby and 3-year-old — decided to leave under the cover of nightfall on Dec. 15.
Some of the people stuffed water bottles in their clothes for the journey, said Weston Showalter, CAM’s spokesman, who at times became choked up and tear-filled describing the group’s time during captivity in a press conference.
Showalter said the group had been contemplating an attempt to escape for a while, but that the time was never right.
On the night of Dec. 15, the group received a sign from God to flee. They snuck out of their 10×12′ room, past the guards and headed toward a mountain in the distance.
Showalter said the group walked around 10 miles for several hours.
“Two hours were through fierce brambles,” Showalter said, quoting one of the hostages that described the escape. “We were in gang territory the whole hike.”
He said the moon provided enough light for their walk, until they reached someone who helped them make a phone call. Later that same day, the group received a flight from the Coast Guard to Florida.
CAM Director David Troyer said the people seem “reasonably well” since their return to Ohio.
CAM, whose membership includes Amish, Mennonite and Anabaptist denominations, has worked in Haiti for decades as part of its global mission “to minister to physical and spiritual needs.” The organization sent missionaries and aid to 133 countries in 2020.
Showalter said the hostages received “many blessings” during their stay, including ample baby food and clean drinking water.
He said the water the group used to bathe was dirty, however, which led to some receiving infections and caused some to become ill at times. To combat the infections on their feet, some of them boiled water and mixed in ashes to soak their feet.
The group was given toothbrushes and a limited supply of toilet paper, Showalter said.
Many of the hostages reported to CAM that they were often hungry during their captivity. On Thanksgiving Day, the group was fed a traditional Haitian stew. One of the hostages said it was a difficult day — one that was spent writing a letter to his family, “not knowing if he’d see them again.”
Showalter said it was a “blessing” that none of the captives were ever physically abused by the abductors.
The hostages were kidnapped just east of Port-au-Prince by a violent gang, 400 Mawozo, on Oct. 16. Among the group are 12 adults and five children, including a now 10-month-old. All but one Canadian were American.
The gang had demanded a $1 million ransom for each person. One of the gang’s leaders threatened to kill the hostages if the ransom was not paid.
CAM has not released the identities of those held hostage and has asked the news media “to please allow the freed hostages and their families the space and privacy they need as they recover from their two-month ordeal and resume their lives.”
CAM has also not said whether ransom was paid.
Matt Miller, one of the first hostages to get out in November, told NBC News he and the other missionaries forgive their captors.
“We forgive them but we long for them to turn their life around,” he said. “We plead with them to realize the harm they’re doing to their own country, the harm they’re doing to their fellow Haitian people.”
Kidnappings in Haiti have spiked since July, following unrest from the assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse. The assassination was followed by an earthquake on Aug. 14 in the southern region of the country that killed thousands of people.
Showalter said the gang also kept other hostages from different groups in a barricaded area. He said the 17 hostages would often pray and sing with them during their captivity.
CAM’s director said the organization will pause missions work in Haiti for a time and that “this even has given us a heightened awareness of the need to strengthen our safety protocols and better instruct our people about the dangers involved.”
