By Tablet Staff

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — A Haitian gang has released three more of the hostages it kidnapped from Christian Aid Ministries, while 12 remaining representatives of the Ohio-based missionary group approach the third month of their captivity.

The missionaries announced on their website that the 400 Mawozo gang released three of its hostages on Sunday, Dec. 5. Gang members had abducted a total of 17 adults and children in mid-October and threatened to kill them unless a $1 million-per-person ransom was paid, according to Haitian authorities. The gang freed the first two hostages on Nov. 21, said Christian Aid Ministries, which has neither named any of those released nor provided background details of the situation. 

[Related: Cries of Haitian People ‘Cannot go Unheeded,’ Vatican Official Says]

The group did say Monday that the three most recently released “are safe and seem to be in good spirits.” The organization asked for continued prayers for the entire team, abducted at a time when Haiti is in the throes of widespread gang violence and kidnappings. Those taken captive included 16 U.S. citizens and one Canadian and comprised 12 adults and five children.

Haiti’s social turbulence follows a summer that brought a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and the assassination of the country’s president, along with shortages of key supplies for the population.