Global Courant 2023-05-19 05:45:18
An 88-year-old Australian doctor who was held captive by Islamist extremists in West Africa for more than seven years has been released and returned to Australia.
Kenneth Elliott was safe and sound and was reunited with his wife and their children on Thursday night, Secretary of State Penny Wong said.
“I am very pleased to report that Dr Ken Elliott, who has been held hostage in West Africa for some seven years, has been reunited with his family in Australia,” Wong told reporters in Sydney.
Elliott and his wife were kidnapped in January 2016 by Islamic extremists in northern Burkina Faso, near the border with Mali and Niger, where they ran a medical clinic. Jocelyn Elliott was released a month later.
“We want to express our gratitude to God and to all who have continued to pray for us,” Elliott’s family said in a statement from the minister’s ministry.
A video taken on February 7, 2016 shows Jocelyn Elliott on the day she was released. (Wendyam Valentin Compaore/AFP/Getty Images)
“We express our relief that Dr Elliott is free and thank the Australian Government and everyone involved over time to secure his release,” the family statement said.
Neither the family nor Wong have detailed the circumstances surrounding Elliott’s release. The doctor is from the west coast city of Perth, but Wong did not say where the family was in Australia.
“At the age of 88 and after many years away from home, Dr. Elliott now needs time and privacy to rest and regain his strength,” the family said.
LOOK | More about the militant group responsible for the kidnapping:
Who are al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb?
“Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups are attacking Westerners where they are vulnerable and where they congregate,” says security expert Ray Boisvert
Militants behind plans for kidnapping for ransom
The militant group behind the kidnapping, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, gained notoriety in large part for ransom kidnapping operations targeting foreign aid workers and tourists.
On the day the Australian couple was kidnapped – January 15, 2016 – 30 people were killed in an extremist attack in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.
Al-Qaeda’s North African wing has claimed responsibility for that attack and other high-profile attacks in West Africa months earlier, including the killing of 20 people in an attack on a hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako.
The Elliotts were abducted near the Burkina Faso town of Djibo, where they had run a medical clinic for four decades. Jocelyn Elliott was released in neighboring Niger.
Niger’s then-President Mahamadou Issoufou had worked with Burkina Faso’s intelligence services to secure her release, his office said at the time.
LOOK | Kidnapped Canadian Edith Blais tells Adrienne Arsenault about her escape:
Edith Blais on her escape after 450 days as a hostage in the Sahara Desert
As the world was gripped by the pandemic in March 2020, Édith Blais, of Sherbrooke Que., tasted freedom for the first time after being held hostage for 450 days. Blais talks to Adrienne Arsenault about her kidnapping in West Africa and her daring escape in the middle of the night.
