MALI: Swiss Missionary Kidnapped Twice

  1. Source: World Watch Monitor, January 11, 2016

A Swiss missionary abducted for 10 days in 2012 has been kidnapped again in Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu, sources tell World Watch Monitor.

Beatrice Stockly was taken from her residence before dawn on January 8 by armed men who arrived in four pickup trucks, according to the sources, whose names are being kept confidential for their safety.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. Militant Islamist groups are active in the region, where two attacks within [the last few months], one of them at a Christian radio station just before Christmas, have left 25 people dead.

A local church leader who claimed to have previously worked with Stockly told World Watch Monitor the missionary settled in Timbuktu in 2000, working for a Swiss church, before starting work alone, unaffiliated with any church.

He said Stockly is in her forties and leads an austere life, selling flowers and handing out Christian material. She was described as sociable, particularly among women and children.

» Read full story. As multiple news sources report, Stockly appears in a video released last week (January 26) by Al Queda’s North Africa affiliate. The video demands release of other prisoners in exchange for her.

» Also read about Maud Kells, another woman who would not stay away from the people she loved (Christian Today).

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