A Blessed Christmas Story: Church agency describes how missionaries escaped their captors after 2-month ordeal in Haiti

Captive missionaries in Haiti found freedom last week by making a daring overnight escape, eluding their kidnappers and walking for kilometres over difficult, moonlit terrain with an infant and other children in tow, officials with the agency they work for said Monday.

The group of 12 navigated by stars to reach safety after a two-month kidnapping ordeal, officials with the Christian Aid Ministries (CAM), the Ohio-based agency that the captive missionaries work for, said Monday at a news conference.

The detailed accounting of their journey to safety comes after news Thursday that the missionaries were free.

Read more at: Church agency describes how missionaries escaped their captors after 2-month ordeal in Haiti | CBC News

Algeria: Dozens of hostages reportedly escape Islamist captors in Algeria - by Jeffrey Fleishman

The Algerian news agency reported Thursday that as many as 45 hostages, including Americans, had escaped from a natural gas complex a day after Islamic militants seized the installation in retaliation for French airstrikes against Islamist rebels in neighboring Mali.  

The Algerian report said 30 Algerians and 15 foreigners had fled the compound Thursday. The report could not be independently confirmed. The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed Algerian official, said 20 foreigners, including Americans, had escaped.

If news of an escape is true -– no details are yet known -– it would mark a stunning twist in a drama that has raised fears of a long siege and highlighted the dangerous Islamist extremism stretching from Mali across the mountains and lawless deserts of North Africa. 

The militants had reportedly threatened to blow up the gas facility at In Amenas near the Libyan border if government commandos attempted to free the hostages. France 24 television reported that a male captive said in a telephone interview that attackers forced some hostages to strap on belts laden with explosives. It could not be confirmed if the man was a hostage.

Read more: Dozens of hostages reportedly escape Islamist captors in Algeria - latimes.com