(Reuters)

Ransom money was raised to pay for the release of a group Canadian and American missionaries kidnapped in Haiti, but a dozen of them escaped captivity on their own, the US-based Christian ministry group which organised their trip to the Caribbean country said today (December 20).

“Other people who sought to help us provided funds to pay a ransom and allow the negotiation process to continue,” David Troyer, director of Christian Aid Ministries, said during a news conference at the group’s Millersburg, Ohio, headquarters.

“After many days of waiting and no action on the part of the kidnappers, God worked in a miraculous way to enable the hostages to escape,” Troyer said.

The missionaries, who were abducted in October by a gang known as 400 Mawozo after visiting an orphanage, originally numbered 17 people.

Two hostages were freed in late November and three were released earlier this month.

Haitian police said last Thursday that the final dozen hostages had been found by authorities on a mountain called Morne à Cabrit. The mountain is about 37 km (23 miles) south of the capital Port-Au-Prince.

A spokesman for the missionary group, Weston Showalter, told the news conference in Millersburg that the last 12 hostages had plotted their escape and eventually walked miles to a point of safety where they could contact authorities.

“They were finally free,” he said.

The ordeal has brought global attention to the Caribbean country’s growing problem of gang abductions.

READ: Ransom was paid for release of missionaries kidnapped in Haiti