PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —

The remaining members of a missionary group who were kidnapped two months ago have been freed, Haiti police and the group said Thursday.

The spokesman for Haiti’s National Police, Gary Desrosiers, confirmed to The Associated Press that the remaining hostages had been released, but did not immediately provide additional details.

“We glorify God for answered prayer — the remaining 12 hostages are FREE!” Christian Aid Ministries said in a statement. “Join us in praising God that all 17 of our loved ones are now safe.”

The Ohio group said it hopes to provide more information later.

The missionaries were kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo gang on Oct. 16. There were five children in the group of 16 U.S. citizens and one Canadian, including an 8-month-old. Their Haitian driver also was abducted, according to a local human rights organization.

The leader of the 400 Mawozo gang had threatened to kill the hostages unless his demands are met. Authorities had said the gang was demanding $1 million per person, although it wasn’t immediately clear that included the children in the group.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Ouest Department —

The recent kidnapping of 17 missionaries from a U.S.-based Christian ministry on assignment in Haiti has the country in shock.

"Something's got to be done," says Joan Conn, executive director for Restavek Freedom, a community dedicated to ending child slavery in Haiti.

She has been to that country many times and said she will go again.

In the wake of a gang kidnapping 12 adults and five children from an American-based Christian ministry, demanding ransom, she described the streets as dangerous and traumatic.

Kidnappings happen routinely there, she says, so we asked her why she intends to go back.

"Well, I feel called to Haiti," she said. "And so does my husband. And I think that, you know, it doesn't, it defies reason, for sure. It's not reasonable. But I think, oftentimes, you know, God puts you in places that don't seem reasonable at the time. I mean, I am a suburban woman driving around in an armored car."

Conn said they have put gates and bars and locks on their doors and windows.

They even hired a security company.

"So, it's expensive, because of how you're having to pay for all these different things that you never dreamed you would have to pay for," she said.

Restavek does much of its work in southern Haiti, but locals say it's too risky to drive there now.

And with a recent earthquake, transporting goods to the south is problematic.

About a month ago, one of Conn's staff members was kidnapped.

"It's every day in Haiti," she said. "Every day, somebody's getting kidnapped there. It's just, I mean, it's an industry."

Her staff member was beaten but then released when his family paid ransom money.

She spoke about a woman merchant in Haiti who was unable to afford the ransom demanded for her daughter.

So, her daughter was killed.

With a breakdown of the rule of law and a government unable to find enough purchase for stability, the gangs have seized the moment as equal opportunity kidnappers.

"It can be rich or poor," Conn said of kidnapping targets. "It can be a child, it can be an adult. It can be a professional, it can be a street merchant. You know, they don't discriminate against who they kidnap. So, it's a huge problem. I mean, yesterday eight more people were kidnapped in Port-au-Prince."

Asked what impact the lawlessness is going to have on mission work there, Conn said a lot of people have already pulled out.

One local group with staff on the ground in that country declined to talk, fearing anything they would say could exacerbate the peril for their workers.

Those who kidnapped the group of seventeen are reportedly demanding a ransom of $1 million for each captive.

The FBI has joined the effort with the U.S. government to try to bring about the safe return of the hostages.

Back to those initial words of hers, that something's got to be done.

"I believe if I were sitting in front of President Biden right now, I'd say, 'Send troops into Haiti,'" she said. "There has to be a rule of law in Haiti and, right now, there is no rule of law. And, without rule of law, you cannot function, and you don't feel safe."

She said children are depending on us.

One can read a double meaning in that statement.

The commitment to mission work, and "us" as in U. S.

HOLMES COUNTY, Ohio — A group of 17 missionaries, including children, were kidnapped by a gang in Haiti during their mission trip over the weekend.

The missionaries were in Haiti working with Christian Aid Ministries, an organization based in Holmes County, Ohio.

The group includes 16 Americans and one Canadian. Among them are five children, one of whom is just 2 years old.

Haitian police said members of the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped the group Saturday in Ganthier, a community east of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. The group was on their way back from building an orphanage.

According to the Associated Press, leaders with Christian Aid Ministries sent a voice message to other religious missionaries to alert them of the kidnapping. The voice message asked for prayers that the gang members would come to repentance.

The mission's field director is now working with the U.S. Embassy.

The director's family and another individual with the group were staying at the ministry's base when the kidnapping occurred.

Mike Harris | News 5 Cleveland.

It is unclear if the gang has demanded ransom.

The Christian Aid Ministries' website says that among other services, it provides bible classes, feeds the needy and helps orphans in Haiti and other countries throughout the world.

The organization's 2020 report stated its missionaries returned to their base in Haiti after a 9-month absence due to its political instabilities.

Bishop Gerard Mirbel has been glued to his television screen since he heard the news about the kidnapping.

"They were there to help people," he said.

Mirbel moved to Painesville, Ohio from Haiti when he was 31. Since then, he has dedicated his life's work to leading mission trips back to his home country and helping the people of Haiti whenever he can.

News 5 Cleveland.

"We had a school, we have an orphanage, we feed the population," he said.

Mirbel said while most Haitians are good, hard-working people, the political unrest and devastation from natural disasters have plagued the country with poverty and an uptick in gang violence.

"It's been tough for Haiti," he said. "Things will not last like this forever."

Mirbel said the missionaries' work for Haiti is essential, but they have to do it safely and know the dangers of certain areas in the country.

"It's important to have security," he said. "I help a lot of people by telling them how to protect themselves. I had a chance to be a director of many missions, and there was no kidnapping, there was no gang violence."

Christian Aid Ministries posted the following statement on its website that read, in part:

"As an organization, we commit this situation to God and trust Him to see us through. May the Lord Jesus be magnified and many more people come to know His love and salvation."

Ohio lawmakers are also offering their support to the organization and those affected by the kidnapping.

Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, issued the following statement.

"We have reached out to Christian Aid Ministries to offer any assistance we can provide," Gibbs said. "We are not commenting on details for the time being. We are ready to work with the appropriate agencies as needed for a peaceful resolution. We urge the Biden administration to ensure the safety of Americans abroad. Congressman Gibbs is praying for everyone's safe release."

"Our office is very concerned but this news and has reached out to the White House, State Department, and Department of Justice for more information," Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a statement.

This story was originally published by Jessi Schultz on Scripps station WEWS in Cleveland.

LES CAYES, Haiti —

Two doctors at hospitals treating earthquake victims in Haiti's capital have been kidnapped, forcing one of the institutions to declare a two-day shutdown in protest, officials said Thursday.

The abductions Tuesday and Wednesday dealt a major blow to attempts to control criminal violence that has threatened disaster response efforts in Port-au-Prince.

Dr. Workens Alexandre, who was seized, was among the country's few orthopedic surgeons, desperately needed for quake victims with broken limbs. An official at the Bernard Mevs Hospital said 45 of the 48 quake victims being treated at the facility needed orthopedic surgery.

Gangs in the rough Martissant neighborhood on the capital's outskirts had announced a truce earlier in the week to allow aid efforts to go through to the southwestern part of Haiti, which was hit hardest by Saturday's earthquake.

It was unclear if those gangs were involved in the latest abductions, but the founder of the DASH network of affordable hospitals, Dr. Ronald La Roche, said criminals have engaged in kidnappings far beyond Martissant.

The Tuesday kidnapping of another doctor, an obstetrician who was on his way to perform an emergency cesarean delivery, occurred in Petionville, long considered one of the safer and wealthier areas of the capital. The doctor's patient and her child both died due to the delay in treatment.

"We are furious at these people," La Roche said of the kidnappers. "They are responsible for the death of this woman and her child."

Of the supposed truce with gangs in Martissant, he said, "We cannot depend on that."

"We feel that the gangsters are getting more daring," said La Roche, whose network of eight hospitals and clinics were closing to nonemergency cases in protest of the kidnapping.

The DASH hospitals are treating 27 earthquake victims, and they — and any emergency cases — will continue to receive care.

Kidnappers have contacted the families of both doctors, but there is no information on ransom demands.

The official at the Bernard Mevs Hospital, who asked not to be identified because of safety concerns, said the problem has gotten so bad that a program has been set up so that doctors can stay in hospital rooms for two or three days to avoid the risk of travel.

The quake killed nearly 2,200 people and injured more than 12,000. The abductions in Port-au- Prince directly affect the transfer of patients from overwhelmed hospitals in the quake zone.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, himself the former head of neurosurgery at Bernard Mevs Hospital, had already recognized that the government cannot depend on the gang truce.

"I have already given orders that for traveling from Port-au-Prince to the south, security be provided on the route from Martissant to the worst-hit areas," he said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a group of 18 Colombian volunteer search-and-rescue workers had to be escorted out of the quake-hit city of Jeremie under police protection after a rumor circulated that they had been involved in the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

That killing, which is still unsolved, is suspected of being carried out by a group of Colombian mercenaries.

The Colombians rescuers had arrived only a day before. Local news outlets reported that a Jeremie city council member went on a radio station and incited people to go after the Colombian team, whose members had patches on their uniforms with the colors of the country's flag. The rescuers took refuge at a civil defense office.

They were later taken to the local airport under police protection, said Wadson Montisino Cledanon, head of the Jeremie civil protection office.

L'ASILE, Haiti —

The problems in Haiti may be summed up by the public hospital in L'Asile, deep in a remote stretch of countryside in the nation's southwest area. Here, a full four days after a powerful earthquake hit this region the hardest, people are still showing up from isolated villages with broken arms and legs.

Hospital director Sonel Fevry said five such patients showed up Tuesday, the same day officials raised the disaster's death toll by more than 500. Grinding poverty, poor roads and faith in natural medicine all conspire to make the problems worse.

"We do what we can, remove the necrotized tissue and give them antibiotics and try to get them a splint," Fevry said, adding that road access to the facility in the department of Nippes is difficult and not everyone can make it.

The countryside was worse hit by the quake, perhaps, than the cities, but news is only slowly trickling out. The whole obstetrics, pediatric and operating wing at the L'Asile hospital collapsed, though everyone made it out. Despite the collapse, the hospital was able to treat about 170 severely injured quake victims in improvised tents in the facility's yard.

The nearby countryside was devastated: In one 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch not a single house, church, store or school was left standing.

Surprisingly, some of the traditional, old style wood-and-pressed-mud homes offered their inhabitants a better chance of survival as their tin roofs remained standing, even after their relatively light walls crumbled. But traditional knowledge was not serving Haiti well in a medical sense.

"We know that many of us Haitians prefer to remain at home and treat themselves with leaves and natural remedies," Fevry said, further delaying their arrival at hospitals.

Officials said the magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged nearly 5,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches also were demolished or badly damaged.

Rain and wind from Tropical Storm Grace raised the threat of mudslides and flash flooding as the system slowly passed over southwestern Haiti's Tiburon Peninsula before heading toward Jamaica and southeastern Cuba. The storm forced a temporary halt to search and rescue efforts, feeding growing anger and frustration among thousands who were left homeless.

Bodies continued to be pulled from the rubble in southwestern Haiti. In the community of Les Cayes, the smell of death hung heavily over a pancaked, three-story apartment building. A simple bed sheet covered the body of a 3-year-old girl that firefighters had found an hour earlier.

Neighbor Joseph Boyer said he knew the girl's family.

"The mother and father are in the hospital, but all three kids died," he said. The bodies of the other two siblings were found earlier.

Illustrating the lack of government presence, volunteer firefighters from the nearby city of Cap-Haitien left the girl's body out in the rain because there were no police officers, who had to be present for a body to be taken away.

A throng of angry, shouting men gathered in front of the collapsed building, a sign that patience was running out for people who have waited days for help from the government.

The head of the Civil Protection Agency, Jerry Chandler, acknowledged the situation. Earthquake assessments had to be paused because of the heavy rain, "and people are getting aggressive," Chandler said.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Residents already were struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, gang violence, worsening poverty and the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse when the quake hit.

Etzer Emile, a Haitian economist and professor at Quisqueya University, a private institution in the capital of Port-au-Prince, said the earthquake's impacts will almost certainly result in even more long-term poverty for the country's struggling southwest region. Political instability and gang criminality along the southern roads into the region have particularly hobbled economic activity in recent years.

"The earthquake has just given a fatal blow to a regional economy already on its knees for about two-and-a-half years," Emile said in an email.

Dependence on remittances from abroad and assistance from international non-governmental groups will only accelerate, he said, likely making Haiti even weaker.

"Foreign aid unfortunately never helps in the long term. The southwest needs instead activities that can boost economic capacity for jobs and better social conditions," he said.

Foreign aid has already begun to arrive.

Sarah Charles, assistant administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, said its disaster response teams were forced to suspend operations as the storm arrived Monday, but members were back Tuesday to assess its impact and continue helping.

"We do not anticipate that the death toll related to this earthquake will be anywhere near the 2010 earthquake, where more than 200,000 people were killed," Charles told reporters.

The U.S. military's Southern Command said it was moving eight helicopters from Honduras to Haiti. Three U.S. Coast Guard helicopters had already assisted in life-saving transports and moved 17,350 pounds of cargo. A U.S. Navy amphibious warfare ship, the USS Arlington, was expected to head for Haiti on Wednesday with a surgical team and landing craft.

___

Associated Press writers Trenton Daniel in New York, Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City and David McFadden in Baltimore contributed to this report.

ORLANDO, Fla. —

For Ruth Sintilus, finally, some relief came amid sadness and worry after the earthquake hit Haiti.

The Central Florida woman was able to get in touch with family after days of uncertainty.

"They told me they got a lot of losses, but thank God they're still alive," Sintilus said. "My grandmother's house has collapsed. She was in there and she got hurt."

Osma Pierre, who also lives in Central Florida, remembers vividly the earthquake that hit Haiti more than a decade ago when he lived there.

He's heartbroken seeing similar devastation again, knowing people he loves are hurting.

"I have some of my family hurt by this earthquake," Pierre said. "Even if someone is not part of my nation or people, we are all human beings. We are all created by God, yes, we are all concerned and hurt."

Sintilus and Pierre both attend the Triumphant Baptist Church in Orlando where Oreste Saint Filus is the pastor.

"Brothers and sisters, when somebody's crying, we're crying too," Saint Filus said.

As the pastor consoles other members as well who are grieving people they lost or facing uncertainty still, he's also trying to find ways to be helpful for the people in Haiti.

"All the Haitian pastors in the community we are all doing the same thing. We need some help to help those that are suffering right there in Haiti," he said.

The pastor says he will work to make some kind of action plan in the coming days to send aid to Haiti.

Naomi Osaka is raising awareness around the devastation in Haiti following a recent 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

The tennis star has pledged to donate any prize earnings from this week's Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati to support earthquake relief efforts in the Caribbean island country. Haiti declared a one-month state of emergency in response to an earthquake that struck near Haiti Saturday morning, which has left over 700 people dead and over 2,800 injured according to CNN.

Osaka, who is Haitian on her father's side, and Japanese on her mother's, announced her pledge on Twitter on Saturday. She wrote, "Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on in Haiti, and I feel like we really can’t catch a break. I’m about to play a tournament this week and I’ll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti."

"I know our ancestors blood is strong we’ll keep rising," she wrote, ending the post with an emoji of the Haitian flag and a praying hands emoji.

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Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on in Haiti, and I feel like we really can’t catch a break. I’m about to play a tournament this week and I’ll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors blood is strong we’ll keep rising

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) August 14, 2021

According to Sports Illustrated, the Western & Southern Open begins Monday and is expected to award $255,220 to the women's singles winner, and $188,945 to the the runner-up.

The four-time Grand Slam champion has been outspoken about current events and social justice issues throughout her career.

During last year's U.S. Open, which took place amid nationwide police brutality protests, Osaka showed her support of the Black Lives Matter movement by wearing face masks printed with the names of Black people who have been killed by police. The 23-year-old also condemned anti-Asian hate crimes and called for support toward the AAPI community earlier this year.