After two months spent in the hands of a gang, twelve members of a group of North American missionaries, including a baby, have found freedom, last Thursday, escaping in the middle of the night.
Le Monde with AFP
The release of twelve North American hostages selected hostage in Haiti had been hailed, Thursday, December 16, by the deputy spokesman of the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre, herself of Haitian origin. But the circumstances of this return to freedom were still unknown.
The religious organization Christian Aid Ministries, to which these missionaries belong, explained, on Monday 20 December, that they had organized their own escape after being sequestered two months by a gang.
On 16 October, the group consisting of seventeen, including five minors, had been removed after the visit of an orphanage, west of the Capital Port-au-Prince, in the heart of a zone. The hold of one of Haiti’s main gangs. Five members of the group had previously been released separately in November and December.
On December 15, after several attempts, the group of twelve remaining hostages, including a 10-month-old baby and a child of 3 years, has managed to break the door behind which they were selected captive, and to thwart attention Guards, explained the spokesman for Christian Aid Ministries, Weston Showalter, at an online press conference.
Two hours of walking between the brambles
Adults have hidden water in their clothes, protected the baby in blankets and worn the other young children to escape and walk through the forest, he told. Assisted by the night, they “walked for probably nearly 10 miles [16 kilometers] and crossed a thick forest, navigating between the brambles” to escape. “We walked in the brambles for two hours we were in the gang territories,” described one of the fugitives, cited by the spokesman.
According to the latter, the hostages were not victims of violence during their sequestration, and were fed, even if they suffered from contaminated water, hunger and lack of sleep.
The gang members “400 Mawozo”, at the origin of the abduction, had claimed a million dollars per person kept captive, according to the information gathered by the France-Presse Agency. The Religious Organization Christian Aid Ministries stated that there was ransom money to continue negotiations, but did not wish to give more details, and nothing more about the payment of any ransions . In a video published at the end of October on social networks, the head of this army band threatened to execute the hostages.
Long confined to the poorest neighborhoods of the capital of this country emburred in a deep political crisis and a spiral of violence, gangs lead their criminal activities with impunity. The Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research, Organization based in Port-au-Prince, has identified at least 949 abductions since the beginning of the year.