Kidnapped Colombian nun Sister Gloria Argoti is among six hostages shown on a video released by the jihadists believed to be holding them.

The video is the first evidence that Sister Gloria and the other hostages are still alive.

According to the US-based monitoring group SITE, the 17 minute-footage was posted on Saturday by the Islamist al-Qaeda affiliate group Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen.

Earlier this year four people were charged with the abduction of Argoti in February from an area east of the capital Bamako where she had been working at a health centre.

Her order, the Franciscan Congregation of Mary Immaculate, has set up a petition for her release.

Since she was taken, the work she was doing in Karangasso, Mali, caring for orphans, teaching adult women to read and write, dispensing needed medications and giving assistance to women has suffered badly.

According to the superior, Sr Noemi Quesada, Sister Gloria is  'a very committed woman, an educator who knows what the needs of the people are... We ask Christians to pray for her liberation and for so many other Christians now detained in the East.'

The six hostages in the video, including three female missionaries, are from Australia, Colombia, France, and Romania, South Africa, and Switzerland.

SITE reports that the video features English narrator from an individual who appears with his face obscured, introducing each of the hostages and telling their respective families that as of yet no negotiations have taken place for their release.

The other captives are Stephen McGowan of South Africa, Elliot Kenneth Arthur of Australia, Iulian Ghergut of Romania, Beatrice Stockly of Switzerland and Sophie Petronin of France.

On the video, Sister Gloria says: 'I was with my sisters in the organisation, when four men entered our home and took me away, I thank my lord that I am in good health, and I pray for my sisters and ask them to pray for me.'

The video release has been timed to coincide with French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Mali.

The French captive, Sophie Petronin, says, 'I demand from the French government, and French President Emanuel Macron, to do everything to get me out of this extremely difficult situation. I want to return to my family in the soonest time possible, to receive therapy, and to see my family. The living conditions are tough and I became weaker, and I have become even weaker and thinner.

'As for the health condition, till now it is alright, and I was supposed to go to France, to undergo a surgical operation, but unfortunately I was not able to.'

The narrator concludes: 'Finally, we direct a message to all governments of each respective captive under our grip. To France, Switzerland, Australia, Romania, South Africa, and Colombia. We say to you: The fate of your children and citizens are within your hands. The demands of the mujahideen are simple and legitimate.To the families of the captives we say: If you desire a genuine and earnest solution for your children, then you yourselves strive to rescue them.

'We also inform you that of this moment, no genuine negotiations have begun to rescue your children. We inform you of this in case a third party deludes you that all things are going as planned and everything is ok. Having said this, negotiations with the mujahideen are still active. We also inform you that there are hidden hands playing with these files and are playing with the safety and lives of your children. And proof of this is in the quick and swift release of former French captive held by the mujahideen in and outside of Mali.'

Sight Magazine in Australia reports that no news had previously emerged regarding Argoti's whereabouts and no group had claimed responsibility for her abduction and detention.

Sight also details how another hostage, Ken Elliott, an 82-year-old Australian surgeon, was kidnapped in January, 2016, along with his wife, Jocelyn, from the town of Djibo in northern Burkina Faso, near the border with Mali. The couple were taken on the same day that AQIM killed 29 in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, including six Canadian Christians doing humanitarian work and a US missionary. Mrs Elliott was released a month later, but her husband was detained.

The Swiss missionary Béatrice Stockly was kidnapped in Mali's northern town of Timbuktu, also in January, 2016. It is the second time she has been abducted.