Tag: Ken Elliott

Niger: US aid worker Jeff Woodke faced ‘brutal’ treatment in captivity

April 4, 2023 Niger Al-Qaeda, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, Jeff Woodke, Ken Elliott, Mali, Niger, USA

Jeff Woodke with his wife Els addressing the media after his release, in McKinleyville, CA,on 31 March 2023

Jeff Woodke, the US Christian aid worker who was released from captivity in West Africa last month, has told reporters that that his abductors treated him “brutally and with inhumanity” during the “6 years, 5 months, 5 days and [some] 12 hours” they held him. Woodke had been living and . . . Read More

Niger: US aid worker Jeff Woodke released

March 20, 2023 Niger Abalak, Burkina Faso, Jeff Woodke, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Mali, Niger

Jeff Woodke (Photo: Woodke's Facebook page)

After more than six years in captivity in West Africa, longtime American Christian aid worker Jeff Woodke has been released. His wife, Els Woodke, was told Jeff was “in good condition,” according to a statement on a website campaigning for his release. “She has expressed her profound thanks to the . . . Read More

Her co-hostage freed a year before; nun meets Pope after Islamists let her leave Mali

October 12, 2021 Mali Colombia, Gloria Argoti, Islamic extremism, Jeff Woodke, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping

Sr. Gloria Argoti meets Pope Francis straight after being freed by Islamists in Mali, oct 10 2021

After almost 5 years as a captive of an Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group in Mali in West Africa, a Colombian nun, Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti, has been freed. She was flown from Bamako, Mali’s capital, direct to Rome where Vatican Media posted photos of her being greeted by the Pope . . . Read More

Swiss woman, hostage almost 5 years, killed by Islamist extremists in Mali

October 10, 2020 Mali Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Beatrice Stockli, Burkina Faso, Gloria Argoti, Islamic extremism, Jeff Woodke, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Niger

Beatrice Stockli settled in Timbuktu in 2000 and was first kidnapped for 10 days in 2012

A Swiss missionary Beatrice Stockli – kidnapped from Timbuktu in northern Mali in January 2016 – was killed only weeks before other hostages were freed by Islamist extremists, in an apparent prisoner-hostage swap negotiated by the new transitional government in Mali. News of her execution came from Sophie Petronin, a . . . Read More

Burkina Faso church leader killed by Islamists: ‘I’d rather die than leave my community’

May 2, 2019 Burkina Faso Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Djibo, IDPs, Islamic extremism, Islamic State West Africa Province, Ken Elliott, Sahel, Sirgadji, Soum, West Africa

An outdoor church outside a home western Burkina Faso.(Photo: CIF Action via Flickr; CC 2.0)

Gunmen who attacked a Protestant church in Burkina Faso on 28 April asked the pastor and five others to convert to Islam before they killed them, World Watch Monitor has learned. Last Sunday’s violence in the West African country appears to have been the first attack, specifically on a church . . . Read More

1,000 days since kidnap of 84-year-old doctor in Burkina Faso, family plead for his release

October 16, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Burkina Faso, Djibo, Ken Elliott, Ouagadougou

It’s over 1,000 days now since an Australian doctor, Ken Elliott, was kidnapped in Djibo, Burkina Faso, on 15 January, 2016. His abduction was claimed by the ‘Emirate of the Sahara’, a branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Dr. Elliott, with his wife, had run a 120-bed clinic in . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: Kidnappers release pastor and his family after four days

June 8, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Children, Djibo, Education, Fulani herdsmen, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, Sahel, Soum, Tuareg

The pastor abducted on Sunday with his family in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum has been released. Local sources told Omega Radio that Pastor Pierre Boena, his son David and his daughter-in-law, Ami Sawadogo, were released yesterday (7 June). The report did not specifically mention the two granddaughters, Fasne-wendé . . . Read More

Second Christian leader in two weeks kidnapped in Burkina Faso

June 5, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Children, Djibo, Education, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, Sahel, Soum, West Africa

A Christian pastor and three members of his family have been kidnapped in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum, two weeks after the kidnapping of another Christian leader and his wife. Pierre Boena, a pastor with an Assembly of God church, was kidnapped during the evening of Sunday 3 June . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: concerns over reported rise in extremism

April 20, 2018 Burkina Faso Burkina Faso, Catholics, Djibo, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Pouytenga, West Africa

A church in Burkina Faso. The recent kidnappings of two Christian church leaders has created an atmosphere of anxiety among Christian communities in the north-eastern part of the country. (Photo: Photo: khym54 via Flickr; CC 2.0)

Christian and Muslim leaders in Burkina Faso met last week to discuss interreligious dialogue amidst growing concerns about the spread of violent Islamic extremism in the country, reports Fides. The landlocked West African nation, which borders Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast, is majority-Muslim (around 60%), but also . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: 2 years on, thousands call for release of ‘doctor of the poor’ by Al-Qaeda offshoot

January 17, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Burkina Faso, Djibo, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, Soum, West Africa

Thousands took to the streets of Djibo, a northern town in Burkina Faso, on Monday (15 January) to call for the government to secure the release of an Australian doctor, Ken Elliott, kidnapped two years ago. The abduction was claimed by the ‘Emirate of the Sahara’, a branch of Al-Qaeda . . . Read More

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