Tag: Kidnapping

Malaysian pastor Raymond Koh’s kidnap inquiry halted

January 19, 2018 Malaysia Borneo, Converts, Joshua Hilmy, Kidnapping, Malaysia, Minorities, Police, Proselytism, Putrajaya, Raymond Koh, Religious freedom, Sabah, Sarawak

The fragile hopes of a Malaysian family in search of answers to the abduction of church leader Raymond Koh were dashed by a surprise development on Wednesday (17 January). Almost a year after Koh went missing, after little or no progress in police investigations, Malaysia’s newest Inspector General of Police . . . 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

Nigeria: British missionary’s kidnapper killed

January 12, 2018 Nigeria Delta State, Ian Squire, Kidnapping, Nigeria

The Nigerian Army says the leader of a gang responsible for the death of a British aid worker has been killed, the BBC reports. Peregbakumo Oyawerikumo was arrested by a special military task force. According to the army that task force was then ambushed on its way back to the . . . Read More

Egypt’s human rights move dismissed as ploy to win back US aid

January 10, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Human rights, Kidnapping, Minya, Muslim Brotherhood, Sohag

Efforts by the Egyptian government to improve its record on human rights are aimed primarily at persuading the US government to reinstate its generous aid package, Coptic activists have said. Last month Egypt announced it would set up 60 human-rights departments across the country to record complaints from citizens of . . . Read More

6 Nigerian nuns released 2 months after kidnap

January 9, 2018 Nigeria Catholics, Edo, Kidnapping, Lagos, Niger Delta, Nigeria

Altar in the Catholic church in Bauchi, northeast Nigeria. (Photo: World Watch Monitor, 2010)

Six Catholic nuns from a convent in the southern Nigerian state of Edo were released on Sunday (7 January), two months after they were kidnapped by armed men. The nuns, belonging to the Sisters of the Eucharistic Heart of Christ, were released after police intervention and were said to be . . . Read More

Iraq bishop recalls his abduction from Baghdad in new book

December 13, 2017 Iraq Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Kurds, Middle East, Saddam Hussein, Sunni, Torture

It was 2001 and Saad Hanna watched in horror as his TV showed the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center smouldering and collapsing. Then a trainee priest studying in Italy, he said to fellow seminarians, “The world is turning upside down. The Americans will not let this be.” . . . Read More

Kidnapped optician ‘shot dead after singing Amazing Grace’

November 28, 2017 Nigeria Delta State, Ian Squire, Kidnapping, Nigeria

The British optician kidnapped and killed last month in Nigeria died in a hail of bullets after singing the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ to lift the spirits of his fellow hostages, two of them said. Ian Squire, 57, was killed instantly by shots fired by one of four gang members who . . . Read More

UK optician kidnapped and killed in Niger Delta, three other medical aid workers rescued

November 6, 2017 Nigeria Africa, Delta State, Ian Squire, Kidnapping, Niger Delta, Nigeria

A British optician, kidnapped with a missionary couple and another optician while working in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, has died. Ian Squire founded a Christian charity, Mission for Vision, in 2003 to “improve the lives of those living in the poorest regions in the developing world”. Once a year he . . . Read More

Kidnapped 9 months ago in broad daylight, where is Malaysian pastor Raymond Koh?

November 2, 2017 Malaysia Kidnapping, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Minorities, Petaling Jaya, Raymond Koh

Raymond Koh turns 63 today, but almost nine months after his abduction there is still no news of the Malaysian pastor. Koh was kidnapped in broad daylight by masked men driving black 4x4s in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, on 13 February. The whole incident, which lasted less than a . . . Read More

Coptic girl, 16, rescued 92 days after Islamists kidnapped her

October 5, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Minya, Women

A 16-year-old Coptic Christian girl kidnapped on 28 June to be “converted to Islam, then married off or sold”, was released and returned to her family on 30 September after police found her and arrested her kidnappers in a city just outside Cairo. Marilyn was recovered from a city named . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye