12 KIDNAPPED HAITI MISSIONARIES RELEASED
The 12 remaining members of a group of 17 North American missionaries who had been kidnapped in Haiti two months ago have been released, their U.S.-based charity and the Haitian national police said Thursday.
“All 17 of our loved ones are now safe,” the Christian Aid Ministries, an organization based in Ohio, said in a statement, without providing further details. It was not immediately clear whether a ransom had been paid, or the physical conditions of the hostages.
The abduction underscores the power of criminal gangs in Haiti, a Caribbean nation of 11 million grappling with a deepening political and economic crisis and the aftermath of a powerful earthquake.
Five of the hostages had been let go already, although little was known about the terms of their release. The others were found in an outlying area of Port-au-Prince, the capital, on Thursday, local news reports said.
A Haitian police spokesman also confirmed the release without providing details.
The 12 released hostages were expected to travel to Miami on Thursday afternoon, according to one of the relatives, who spoke on condition of anonymity and did not provide further details to safeguard the missionaries’ safety. The U.S. Embassy in Haiti declined to comment on the news of their release.
The group, which included children, was made up of 16 Americans and one Canadian. They were taken in October by a gang called 400 Mawozo in a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince after visiting an orphanage.
Dan Miller, a farmer in Ohio and the father of Matt Miller, one of the hostages released in November, said the families of the hostages, most of whom did not know one another before the kidnapping, have grown close over the past two months of fearful waiting.
“Now we’re all rejoicing together,” he said.
Gangs have steadily taken over new sections of the capital after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July, effectively seizing control of all overland supply routes to and from the city. Gang violence has greatly aggravated Haiti’s already acute economic crisis, leaving supplies of fuel, medical equipment and other essential goods in the capital at the mercy of gang leaders.
The violence has also deadlocked Haiti’s political crisis.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the leaders of several major Haitian parties have said Haiti cannot hold free and fair elections to replace Moïse until police win back control of the capital from the gangs. But some police units have been implicated in Moïse’s assassination, further undermining confidence in Haiti’s weak security forces and complicating the struggle against organized crime.