Update: An unidentified person paid a ransom that freed three missionaries kidnapped by a gang in Haiti under an agreement that was supposed to have led to the release of all 15 remaining captives early last month, workers for the Ohio-based group confirm, per the AP. The person who made the payment wasn't affiliated with Christian Aid Ministries, and the workers say they don't know who the individual is or how much was paid to the 400 Mawozo gang, which initially demanded $1 million per person. Internal conflicts in the gang, they say, led it to renege on a pledge to release all the hostages, freeing just three of them on Dec. 5. CAM officials had conceded at a presser Dec. 20 that an unaffiliated party had offered to provide a ransom, but at the time they refused to say a payment was paid. In subsequent remarks, officials said the group had opposed paying cash ransom on principle, though it did make an offer of food boxes that the captors rejected. Eventually CAM accepted a third-party offer to negotiate with the gang. Our original story from Dec. 16 follows:
All of the missionaries kidnapped by a gang in Haiti two months ago have been freed, reports the AP. Haitian police spokesman Gary Desrosiers announced the development on Thursday. Seventeen members of Christian Aid Ministries, based in Ohio, were originally abducted by the 400 Mawozo gang in October. Five had been freed in earlier releases. The gang, known for mass abductions, originally demanded $1 million per hostage, and it wasn't immediately clear how much, if any, money was paid. The group included five children, and one of the kidnap victims was Canadian. All were abducted while visiting an orphanage outside the capital of Port-au-Prince. (More Haiti stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
