Abducted Haiti missionaries describe daring escape

Twelve missionaries who spent months in captivity after being kidnapped in Haiti managed to escape on their own, according to their US-based church.

Christian Aid Ministries announced they had been freed last week, and on Monday they outlined their daring mission to hike through darkness to freedom.

The group used the stars for navigation to trek up to 10 miles (6km) through dense bush, a church spokesman said.

They were abducted in October with five others after visiting an orphanage.

"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 have chosen to follow and left the place that they were held," church spokesman Weston Showalter said at a news conference in Ohio.

Evading "numerous guards", the group travelled in the direction of a mountain that they had seen days earlier using constellations to guide them.

They included a married couple, a 10-month old baby, and children aged 3, 14 and 15. There were also four adult men and two women.

"With God's help, protection and leading, they quickly made their way through the night, they walked for possibly as much as 10 miles - it's a little bit hard to discern exactly how far the distance was, but for many miles, travelling through woods and thickets, working through thorns and briars," said Mr Showalter.

He said the group, including all of the children, remained silent during the ordeal and that the infant was wrapped in clothing to protect her from briars.

"Two hours were through fierce brambles. We were in gang territory the whole hike," the spokesman added, quoting one of the escapees.

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

They were later flown back to Florida on a US Coast Guard flight, Christian Aid Ministries said. Most have now returned to their families.

Two group members were freed in November, and another three in early December, but their identities were not revealed. Mr Showalter did not mention whether any ransoms had been paid, but said that congregants had been gathering funds.

The gang, known as 400 Mazowo, was demanding a ransom of $1m (£740,000) for each of the 17 hostages.

The group was fed by the kidnappers - the babies were given infant formula - and clean drinking water. The water for cleaning was contaminated, the church said, leading some of the escapees to get skin sores around their mosquito bites.

Mr Showalter denied reports that the group's driver was a Haitian local. He said the driver was a Canadian, and that he is now also free.

"The hostages spoke to the gang leader on several occasions, boldly reminding him of God and warning him of God's eventual judgment if him and the gang members continue in their gangs," Mr Showalter said, adding that the group maintained a 24-hour prayer vigil while in captivity.

Kidnapping is one of the main activities that the 400 Mazowo criminal gang uses to finance itself.

In April, its members abducted a group of Catholic clergy who were later released, and it is unclear if a ransom was paid.

Haiti has one of the highest rates of kidnapping in the world, as powerful gangs exploit the lawless situation to profit from ransom payments.

The rise has come in the wake of President Jovenel Moïse's assassination in July, as rival factions fight to gain control of the country in the face of a struggling police force.