Source: International Christian Concern, May 24, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kenneth Elliott, an Australian doctor kidnapped in Burkina Faso and held captive by al-Qaeda for more than seven years, has finally returned home to his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKenneth Elliott was safe and well and was reunited with his wife and their children on Thursday night,\u201d Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe wish to express our thanks to God and all who have continued to pray for us,\u201d added Elliott\u2019s family in a statement released by Wong\u2019s department<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On January 15, 2016, Elliott and his wife Jocelyn were taken from their home in Burkina Faso by the Mali-based terror organization al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Jocelyn was quickly released in February 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elliott and his wife had been running a hospital in Djibo. The hospital, which could hold 120 patients, was closed due to Elliott\u2019s absence after the kidnappings. He was the only surgeon in the area and made his services free to the population of roughly 2 million. He was given the nicknames the \u201cDoctor of the Poor\u201d and \u201cSavior of the Sahel\u201d for the work he was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read the full story<\/a> or one from the Associated Press<\/a>. The family\u2019s statement says, \u201cAt 88 years of age, and after many years away from home, Dr. Elliott now needs time and privacy to rest and rebuild strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apparently, the Sahel now accounts for nearly half of global terrorism<\/a>, with more people killed by terrorists there than in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia combined (Unherd). On the weekend the Elliotts were kidnapped, the same group took credit for a terrorist attack in Ouagadougou that killed 30 others from at least 18 nationalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in other news of captives released, an Iranian judge freed a Christian couple and ruled that house church gatherings are not illegal<\/a>, and another judge reduced a Christian\u2019s prison sentence for holding services in his home from ten years to two<\/a> (Article18).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: International Christian Concern, May 24, 2023 Kenneth Elliott, an Australian doctor kidnapped in Burkina Faso and held captive by al-Qaeda for more than seven years, has finally returned home to his family. \u201cKenneth Elliott was safe and well and was reunited with his wife and their children on Thursday night,\u201d Foreign Minister Penny Wong … Continue reading Burkina Faso\/Mali: Australian Doctor Freed After Seven Years in Captivity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12111,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12101\/revisions\/12111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}