New research suggests that India’s COVID-19 death toll during its first and second waves might have been significantly undercounted, with the actual number potentially 12 times higher than the official stats — over 6 million people.
That would be by far the highest COVID death toll in the world — greater than the U.S. at more than 811,000.
India was devastated by a crushing wave of the delta variant in April and May, with supply shortages, makeshift clinics and images of funeral pyres burning nonstop.
There was a sense at the time that the number of deaths was an undercount and a study in July indicated that deaths could be 10 times the official toll, although that research had limitations.
The new study, by researchers in the U.S. and India from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, a public health research institute in Washington, D.C., indicates that the “reported COVID-19 deaths greatly underestimated pandemic-associated mortality” and was particularly acute among older and poorer people.
According to government statistics, India logged 478,007 COVID-19 deaths from the beginning of the pandemic, marked at Jan. 3, 2020 to Dec. 21, 2021, and nearly 35 million cases during that time.
The study — which is focused on the Chennai District on the country’s southeast coast — indicates the number is likely much higher, finding that that the death rate there was 5.2 per 1,000, “a 41% increase over typical mortality levels in the city.”
The study uses data on “all-cause mortality” within the district, i.e. the death rate from all causes of death for the population in the given time period are considered.
“On the nationwide figures, the 5.2 deaths per 1000 resident would indicate over 6 million deaths nationwide if the results could be extrapolated to the entire country,” Professor Ramanan Laxminarayan, an economist and epidemiologist and the study’s lead author, told ABC News. He is the founder of the University of Washington’s Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in DC, which contributed to the project.
Deaths were substantially higher in older age groups.
Greater increases in mortality were observed in communities with lower socioeconomic status during the second wave of infections from March 1-June 30, 2021, but not during the first.
Laxminarayan said that there were limitations to the study — Chennai, as an urban area, might have been more affected than many parts of the country which were rural.
“But by the same token, Chennai has some of the best public health and healthcare facilities in the country and so the mortality rates in Chennai were likely lower than in other parts of the country,” he added.
The study notes that the true burden of disease is still “uncertain” due to restrictions in disease surveillance and a lack of official death records.
(WASHINGTON) — As Afghanistan spirals further toward a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, the international community is allowing greater exemptions to aid groups to try to alleviate the suffering.
The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution Wednesday to grant humanitarian exemptions to their sanctions on the Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan this summer after nearly two decades of war with the U.S.-backed government.
In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it has expanded its general licenses to more explicitly allow aid groups to work in Afghanistan, including to support civil society, human rights, and education.
But while both steps were welcomed, many aid groups, U.N. agencies, and U.S. lawmakers, including Democrats, say it is not enough, as more than half of Afghanistan’s 39 million people face acute hunger.
“While this move will enable an essential increase in humanitarian aid, this alone is not sufficient to stave off economic collapse and humanitarian unraveling,” David Miliband, president and CEO of the aid group International Rescue Committee, said after the U.N. vote.
The Biden administration has defended U.S. sanctions against the Taliban — designated by the Treasury as a terrorist organization — and instead blamed Afghanistan’s economic woes on decades of dependence on humanitarian aid, an ongoing drought and COVID-19, and the militant group’s takeover of the country.
A senior administration official said the U.S. was working to mitigate the crisis, but said it is on the Taliban to govern now, address the country’s economic challenges, and meet its commitments if it wants international aid, including on securing women’s and girl’s rights, halting reprisal killings, and countering terrorism.
The Taliban have said international sanctions must be lifted, calling them “punishment of the common people,” in the words of Suhail Shaheen — a longtime spokesperson who the Taliban have cast as their U.N. ambassador, although the group’s government is not recognized.
Afghanistan’s economy has contracted by 40 percent, according to some estimates, with inflation now putting everyday items out of reach for many. Foreign aid, which accounted for some 75 percent of the collapsed former government’s funding and 40 percent of the country’s GDP, has been halted and the government accounts, frozen. Banks have shut down or limited access to funds, with many global financial institutions afraid to run afoul of U.S. and U.N. sanctions. That means salaries, especially for public sector employees like teachers, have not been paid for months, and unemployment has skyrocketed.
With this economic collapse comes real suffering. The U.N. has warned as many as 90 percent of Afghans could be in poverty by next year, and as many as one million children could die this winter from starvation.
Among them could be Mohammed, who at two-years old weighs just 11 pounds — the bones in his face visible as he struggles to eat in a Kabul hospital. His mother unable to afford the medicine he needs, he is one boy among the many Afghans struggling across the country.
“The previous government was bad, but this government is even worse because they have cut our food. Nobody has mercy on us,” a former shopkeeper waiting in line to access food aid told ABC News last week.
That government has done little to deal with U.S. and international concerns about its violent tactics, repression of women and other minorities, and even its ability to govern.
But it’s also clear that U.S. and U.N. sanctions have slowed cash flowing into the country, including the former government’s funds at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Last week, the U.S. and others facilitated a deal to transfer $280 million from the World Bank’s funds to UNICEF and the World Health Organization to provide humanitarian aid — the first of its kind transfer that could set an example for future transactions, but a drop in the bucket compared to the need, per aid groups.
“To ensure that humanitarian work can continue to scale, it is critical that sanction regimes do not hold back operations. Transactions on which humanitarian activities depend must be safeguarded,” the U.N.’s relief chief Martin Griffiths tweeted Wednesday.
Democratic lawmakers have joined those criticisms, with over three dozen urging the Biden administration in a letter Monday to reverse policies that “could cause more civilian deaths in the coming year than were lost in 20 years of war.” They called for the U.S. to provide Afghanistan’s central bank access to the $9.8 billion of Afghanistan’s currency reserves held in the U.S. and “more explicit reassurances” to give aid groups space to operate.
But so far, Biden’s team has shown no interest in doing so. The senior administration official told reporters the U.S. will maintain financial pressure on the Taliban and its leadership, as it seeks to ensure money gets to the Afghan people instead.
ABC News’s Ian Pannell contributed to this report from Kabul.
(RIO DE JANEIRO) — Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old self-described “moderate socialist,” will be sworn in as Chile’s president in March, making him both the youngest leader in South America and the youngest president in modern Chilean history.
The left-wing former student protester secured 56% of the vote in Sunday’s election, defeating the ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast, 56. Boric has vowed sweeping changes in Chilean society, campaigning on promises to dismantle the economic legacy of the General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.
“I am going to be the president of all Chileans, whether you voted for me or not,” Boric said after his victory.
His campaign was successful in part because it appealed to the interests of younger Chileans. Boric rose to prominence as a key figure of the recent student protests, which included several years of nearly constant demonstrations against inequality and demands for social reforms.
“Boric is a symbol of hope for all Chile not just the rich or the poor,” Mariana Bona, a 27-year-old music teacher and Boric voter from Santiago, Chile’s capital, told ABC News. “We need to become one people.”
Born on Feb. 11, 1986, in Punta Arena in southern Chile, Boric began his activist career a decade ago, as a leader in student marches seeking better and cheaper education for all.
The former law student never finished his studies and instead turned his focus to politics. Striking a casual figure compared to other Chilean lawmakers — Boric rarely wears a tie — he was first elected to congress as a lower-house legislator for the Magallanes region in 2013. He was reelected in 2018.
During his presidential campaign, he promised to “bury” the neoliberal, free-market economy implemented under Pinochet’s rule, vowing to tax the richest in society to improve social services.
The left-winger was able to secure support beyond Santiago, including from ethnic minorities and the LGBT community, eliciting favor through his support of same-sex marriage in a majority Catholic country. Sunday’s high-turnout vote brought with it a message of unification, according to Lucía Dammert, a political analyst at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile.
“So many people went to vote, more than at the first round where Kast was leading,” she said. “This is the presidential elections with the largest number of votes in the history of Chile. This is significant — and it does provide a lot of legitimacy for Gabriel Boric. This is truly an historical event.”
In his post-victory speech, Boric said the country would no longer accept that the poor continue paying the price of inequality.
“Boric’s win will allow the country to grow,” Dammert said. “And it will allow Chile to find and define a new path.”
(LONDON) — The British royal family’s annual Christmas tradition has been canceled for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Queen Elizabeth will remain at Windsor Castle this year for Christmas, canceling her traditional family gathering at Sandringham, her Norfolk estate, a royal source told ABC News.
“Her Majesty has decided to celebrate Christmas at Windsor and will not travel to Sandringham,” said the royal source. “The decision was a personal one after careful consideration and reflects a precautionary approach.”
“There will be family visiting Windsor over the Christmas period and all appropriate guidelines will be followed,” added the source.
It has not yet been announced where other members of the royal family plan to celebrate Christmas this year.
Last week, Queen Elizabeth, 95, canceled her annual pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace that she traditionally holds for extended members of the royal family, again due to the pandemic, a royal source told ABC News at the time.
This Christmas will mark Queen Elizabeth’s first without her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, who died in April at the age of 99.
The queen and Philip spent Christmas last year together at Windsor Castle after the royal family broke their decades-long tradition of spending Christmas at Sandringham.
In past years, the queen and Philip oversaw the family’s multi-day Christmas celebration at Sandringham with their four children — Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward, and Princess Anne — and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The family traditionally holds their gift exchange on Christmas Eve, following the German tradition, where they often swap funny or homemade gifts.
On Christmas Day, they traditionally walk to St. Mary Magdalene Church for the Christmas service and then enjoy lunch at Sandringham before watching the queen deliver her annual Christmas message.
In the evening, the royal family will get together again for a Christmas buffet dinner with 15 to 20 different delicacies prepared by the queen’s chef.
On the day after Christmas, known as Boxing Day in the U.K., the royals traditionally partake in a pheasant shoot on the grounds of Sandringham.
Some members of the royal family gathered Dec. 8 at Westminster Abbey for a Christmas carols service hosted by Duchess Kate.
Kate and Prince William were joined by William’s cousins Zara Tindall, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, as well as William’s aunt, Sophie Wessex, and members of Kate’s family, the Middletons.
Chace Harrison, 11, died at Royal Hobart Hospital on Sunday afternoon, Tasmania Police said.
“Our thoughts continue to be with his family, and the families and loved ones of all the children involved, during what is an incomprehensibly difficult time,” Police Commissioner Darren Hine said in a statement.
The tragedy happened on Thursday during an end-of-year celebration at Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport, in north Tasmania. A gust of wind lifted the bouncy castle into the air, causing several children to fall from a height of about 32 feet, police said.
Police on Friday had identified the first five victims as 11-year-old Addison Stewart and 12-year-olds Peter Dodt, Zane Mellor, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones and Jye Sheehan.
“The loss of six young lives will be felt by our community for a long time – so please take care of yourselves and those around you,” Hine said on Sunday.
Two children were still in critical condition at the hospital, and one was recovering at home, police said on Sunday.
Officials said their investigation was ongoing, with forensic child interviewers from New South Wales Police Force expected to arrive in Tasmania on Sunday. They will help conduct interviews with young witnesses in the coming days, police said.
“It is paramount we don’t pre-empt any outcome until all evidence is gathered and the investigation is complete,” Commissioner Hine said. “This will allow the Coroner to determine the findings based on all the available evidence and facts.”
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Around two dozen U.S.-trained former Afghan Air Force pilots are still trapped in Afghanistan and pleading for the United States government to evacuate them from the country, where they fear they face execution if found by the Taliban.
The pilots belong mostly to two helicopter squadrons and have been in hiding since the Taliban seized Kabul in August. According to several of the pilots who spoke to ABC News, they are living on the run in safe houses and struggling to feed themselves while frantically trying to find a way out of Afghanistan as the Taliban continue to search for them.
The aviators are among thousands of former Afghan military personnel who were left behind during the mass evacuations in August and who, for now, have no route out.
Former and current U.S. military officers who are lobbying to have the pilots evacuated say they are frustrated, because they believe the U.S. government’s current refugee policy treats them as a low priority despite the clear danger to them.
“They’re not really being given any kind of priority right now,” said David Hicks, CEO of Sacred Promise, an NGO created by current and former American military officers trying to help Afghan military personnel leave.
“They’re U.S.-trained, they know English, have worked with the U.S. and have fought the Taliban directly,” Hicks, a former brigadier general, told ABC News. “One would think individuals of that caliber would get some level of prioritization in the big-picture process. And here they are, just sitting in the back of the line right now.”
Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Robert Lodewick told ABC News it was aware that former members of the Afghan Air Force remain in Afghanistan and said “we are working all available options to facilitate their departure.”
He said the State Department has helped over 800 Afghan Air Force and Special Mission Wing personnel begin the resettlement process since Aug. 31.
Since taking power, the Taliban have rounded up former Afghan military personnel it believes are a threat or useful to them and, in some cases, have imprisoned or killed them. Human Rights Watch found that Taliban forces have summarily executed or disappeared over 100 former police and intelligence officers in four provinces since August. The total such killings is likely higher.
The pilots say their squadrons killed hundreds of Taliban fighters during the war, including senior commanders, meaning they will almost certainly face harsh retribution.
“Maybe they will cut our skin from our body,” one of the pilots told ABC News by phone from hiding. ABC News is not identifying him or other pilots for their security.
The pilot, a former captain, flew helicopters as part of two squadrons that were based in Kabul and Kandahar. The squadrons’ pilots were highly trained, with many receiving instruction abroad, including in the U.S., and they worked closely with American military advisers.
They were unable to get onto U.S. evacuation flights from the Kabul airport amid the city’s chaotic fall in August. Since then, the Taliban have closed Afghanistan’s borders. Commercial flights from Kabul are stopped, and chartered evacuation flights have slowed to a trickle.
Now scattered across Afghanistan, some with their families, the pilots say they are largely unable to go outside for fear of falling into the Taliban’s hands. Unable to work, their money is running out and they are increasingly struggling to feed their families amid a humanitarian catastrophe in the country, several of the pilots said.
“They left us in the really bad situation. Because even we don’t have money to buy food for our kids,” another pilot said. He has four children, ages 2 to 9, and one has a serious blood disorder.
“We fought years for U.S. goals, but in the end they left us behind alone in poverty,” he said.
More than 500 Afghan Air Force personnel were able to escape Afghanistan in August by flying their aircraft to neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. After they spent weeks in detention, the U.S. succeeded in airlifting them to Dubai, where they will be processed for resettlement to the U.S.
But the pilots trapped in Afghanistan said they have been told there is little prospect of getting them out in the short term.
One or two charter flights facilitated by the U.S. government or organized by private charities continue to leave Afghanistan most weeks, but they are mainly carrying civilians. The number of flights has greatly fallen since August, and those being approved for seats on them has slowed. Only around 3,000 Afghans have been evacuated since late September.
U.S. military officers lobbying to help the pilots said they believe, while difficult, it should be possible to get the pilots onto evacuation flights if they are given the right priority.
Hicks, of Sacred Promise, said he thinks many former Afghan military personnel are currently lower priority than civilians, despite having strong claims for refugee status.
The State Department has been prioritizing the evacuation of so-called Special Immigrant Visa or SIV holders, which are Afghans who worked directly for the U.S. mission. In early August before the Afghan government collapsed, the Biden administration created another type of refugee status, known as Priority 2, or P2, for Afghans deemed at-risk but who had not worked for the U.S. government directly. It was meant for women’s rights activists, journalists and former Afghan military personnel, but applicants must depart the country first — too high a hurdle for many.
Hicks said that system has created a situation where Afghan military personnel, despite often being in more danger than some SIV evacuees, are still stuck behind, with no prospect of fast rescue.
“I don’t understand how literally someone — no offense to anybody — but how someone could be a janitor working at the U.S. Embassy has a higher priority than an Afghan Air Force or Special Mission Wing pilot who’s been fighting the Taliban,” Hicks said.
Sacred Promise’s staff includes current military officers who for years worked as mentors with the pilots in Afghanistan and who are able to verify their identities. Hicks said the NGO has already vetted 2,000 former Afghan military personnel, who he said could immediately start being processed for asylum if evacuated.
Some senators, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have called for the Biden administration to step up its efforts to get at-risk Afghans out, saying it is not doing enough.
Hicks and the pilots acknowledged that the U.S. government is facing a gargantuan challenge in getting people out. But he said he believes that since his organization is able to help vet the pilots — and considering the urgent danger to them — it makes sense to move faster on them.
“That’s the thing that frustrates us the most, and we’re trying to get the discussion why that prioritization can’t get tweaked or adjusted in this situation,” he said.
The pilots still in Afghanistan fear time is running out for any evacuation. They said they have become particularly alarmed since they now believe the Taliban has found a database that holds their personal details and biometric data, including finger prints.
Trapped at home, one of the pilots has little to do but worry. He finds himself watching videos on social media of executions of ex-Afghan military members.
“As we give them more time, they have more chance or opportunity to find us,” he said. “If I stay in Afghanistan, they will definitely arrest me one day.”
(WASHINGTON) — Russia published a list of sweeping new security guarantees it wants from the United States and NATO on Friday — including a promise not to expand the alliance — staking out demands for de-escalating the crisis it has stoked around Ukraine.
The radical proposals would rewrite the post-Cold War security order in Europe, obliging the U.S. and NATO to commit to not admitting any new members, including Ukraine, but also effectively prohibiting any NATO military activity in Eastern Europe and most of the former Soviet Union.
The demands were presented in two draft treaties that Russia’s foreign ministry published on Friday, with Russia saying it had passed them to the Biden administration earlier this week.
But the U.S. and NATO countries have already previously ruled out Russian demands for a veto on the alliance’s expansion and on Friday a senior Biden administration official immediately rejected the two key Russian proposals to bar Ukraine from ever joining or NATO expanding farther eastward.
“We will not compromise on key principles on which European security is built,” the administration official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“All countries have the right to decide their own future and their own foreign policy, free from outside interference, and that goes for Ukraine and it also goes for NATO allies and the alliance itself,” the senior administration official said, adding President Joe Biden made that clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their call last week.
Russia made the proposals against the backdrop of its military buildup near Ukraine, where the U.S. says Russia has massed over 100,000 troops, with the implicit threat it could use force if its demands are not met.
Western countries fear Putin may be preparing a new major military incursion against Ukraine and have been trying to understand whether the Russian leader is really prepared to escalate the conflict this winter.
Friday’s proposals addressed a grievance the Kremlin has nurtured for nearly three decades about NATO’s expansion since the Cold War — into what Moscow views as its sphere of influence.
The Russian draft treaties call for NATO to remove any troops or weapons from countries that joined the alliance after 1997, meaning most of Eastern Europe, including Poland, the Baltic states and Balkan countries. It also calls for the U.S. and Russia to refrain from deploying troops in areas where they could be perceived as a threat to each countries’ national security, and a ban on sending their aircraft and warships into areas where they could strike each other’s territory. The treaty would also ban the deployment of intermediate-range missiles in Europe.
The limits on NATO in Eastern Europe are seen as a non-starter by most experts. Most analysts in Moscow believe the Kremlin itself is aware that the proposals are unrealistic. Some said that rather than real goals, they may represent an opening gambit aimed at winning some concessions.
“This is a bargaining position — [the Kremlin] is trying to get some degree of partial acceptance,” Andrey Kortunov, head of the Russian International Affairs Council, told The Moscow Times.
The senior Biden administration official said that while it rejected out of hand the proposed limits on NATO membership for Ukraine and others, it was reviewing the other Russian proposals, hinting it was possible there might be some areas for discussion.
The official noted that several of the issues raised by Russia — arms control for example — were already being dealt with in different talks between the U.S. and Russia. The official said the U.S. would respond with a “more concrete” proposal to the Russians next week after consulting with allies, but added it will include a list of their own concerns “about Russia’s posture and behavior.”
But other analysts found the unrealistic nature of Russia’s demands disturbing, interpreting them as perhaps a sign the Kremlin is laying the groundwork now to justify an invasion that it will paint as the result of failed negotiations.
“I don’t see this as something aimed at a productive negotiation, even if some parts of this could have been discussed and considered privately,” Vladimir Frolov, a former Russian diplomat and current foreign affairs commentator, told ABC News.
Dmitry Trenin, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote on Twitter that Russia publishing the demands now “may suggest that Moscow (rightly) considers their acceptance by west unlikely.” That means Russia is more likely to use military force to ensure they are realized, he said.
Russia’s buildup has not stopped since Biden and Putin’s call last week, with satellite imagery showing vehicles and equipment continuing to appear at new sites near Ukraine. Most experts believe the Russian troops will not withdraw while the Kremlin continues its diplomatic push for concessions.
(PARIS) — After 2 1/2 years of cleaning and consolidating — and a pandemic that halted French workers for a few months — the restoration phase of the Notre Dame cathedral is set to kick off this winter.
The night of April 15, 2019, a massive fire tore through the roof of world famous cathedral in Paris, collapsing the spire. The first block of wood to be used in the new spire — at the very base of a structure that should rise 255 feet above ground — was produced in a lumbermill in the western France town of Craon on Thursday.
Rebuilding Notre Dame is a colossal national project. Mickael Renaud, owner of a lumbermill called The Giants, told ABC News, he was proud to play a part, adding that his lumber mill had to expand storage capacity simply to house the huge blocks of wood required.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised in July 2020 that everything lost in the fire would be rebuilt in its original form — over 1,000 centennial trees were carefully selected from French forests and sent to sawmills across the country.
According to the head of the establishment for the conservation and the restoration of Notre Dame, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, the plan is to reopen the church to the public in 2024.
While hundreds of artisans are focused on reproducing an exact replica of the cathedral, there also are plans to change the interior lighting and liturgic design. Those plans include a different entrance for the public, adding holograms of biblical phrases in several languages and integrating contemporary art, changes that are causing a stir among some critics. The plan was partially validated by the National Commission for Heritage and Architecture on Dec. 9.
For Monseigneur Aumônier, the bishop in charge of the interior design of the cathedral on behalf of the Catholic Church, the updates are part of an effort to recognize the building’s value not just for France but the whole world.
“The Catholic liturgy will be celebrated in Notre Dame as ever,” he told ABC News. “But, naturally with the new visibility of Notre Dame, it’s very helpful for us to guide people who will visit.”
Art Historian Didier Rykner told ABC News that such major changes threatened the integrity of the medieval structure.
“Nobody wants this — we want Notre Dame back as before,” he said. Tourists “will want to see Notre-Dame like it was before, not like it will be now.”
(LONDON) — Australia is coming together as a nation following Thursday’s bouncy castle tragedy in which five children were killed.
A gust of wind lifted the castle into the air, causing several children at the Devonport school in north Tasmania to fall from about a height of about 32 feet.
Police identified the victims as 11-year-old Addison Stewart and 12-year-olds Peter Dodt, Zane Mellor, Jye Sheehan, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones and Jye Sheehan.
Three other children are still in critical condition, while one child who was injured has been discharged from hospital.
There are still more questions than answers over what happened. Police said they would be investigating whether the bouncy castle was properly tethered to the ground.
“There’s no doubt this incident will leave its mark and I know people are sending their thoughts and prayers from right across the country and even further afield,” Tasmania Police Commissioner Darren Hine said.
He added, “Tasmanians are already coming together to support each other at this very difficult time.”
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave his deepest sympathies to families and the people of Devonport, a city of fewer than 30,000 people.
“This is a tight-knit community,” Morrison said. “There would be few people, if any, in Devonport, that would haven’t had a connection to one of those families, to that school, to the first responders those impacted by this terrible, terrible tragedy.”
Hillcrest Primary School posted a message on Facebook on Friday, saying that “no words can truly express how we are all feeling” and advising anyone struggling with what happened to seek counseling.
Hundreds of flowers, soft toys and cards have been left at the entrance of the school, with one note saying: “May you five angels be surrounded by sunshine.” A candlelight vigil has been held and Christmas lights were switched off in honor of the young victims.
An online crowdfunding page for the victims’ families has raised more than $740,000.
(WASHINGTON) — The remaining 12 hostages from a U.S.-based missionary group have been released by the Haitian gang that had held them for two months, Haitian authorities and the missionary group confirmed Thursday.
Their release was secured two months to the day after they were first detained by the notoriously violent group that had demanded $1 million for each of the 16 Americans and one Canadian, including five children.
“We glorify God for answered prayer—the remaining twelve hostages are FREE! Join us in praising God that all seventeen of our loved ones are now safe. Thank you for your fervent prayers throughout the past two months. We hope to provide more information as we are able,” Christian Aid Ministries said in a statement.
Haitian police confirmed to ABC News that the hostages were released Thursday morning in a suburb of the country’s capital Port-au-Prince, and a Haitian National Police patrol picked them up.
It’s unclear if that ransom was paid for their release.
The gang, known as 400 Mawozo, released two of the hostages — a couple — in late November as a humanitarian gesture because one of them was sick. Last week, three more missionaries were released, but Christian Aid Ministries declined to provide more information on their identities or how their release was secured.
All 17 missionaries were taken on Oct. 16 as they were returning from a visit to an orphanage in an area dominated by 400 Mawozo, one of the powerful criminal gangs that have operated with impunity in Haiti.
Haiti was devastated by a powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake this August that killed over 2,200 people — and is still reeling from the assassination of its president in July, the constitutional crisis he had created, and the political chaos that has followed his killing.
President Joe Biden has said he was regularly updated on U.S. efforts to free the missionary group, which involved the FBI, the State Department, the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, and other government agencies. It’s unclear if they played a role in their release Thursday.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
