2023-05-19 06:59:31
Published on :
An 88-year-old Australian doctor, Kenneth Elliott, has been released seven years following his abduction by jihadists in Burkina Faso, the Australian authorities announced on the night of May 18 to 19, 2023.
Australian Kenneth Elliott, a hostage for seven years, has been released. The Australian government announced it on the night of May 18-19, 2023. The exact date of his release has not been disclosed.
He was kidnapped alongside his wife on January 15, 2016 in Burkina Faso by the jihadist group Ansar Dine, linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. His wife had quickly regained her freedom. Kenneth Elliott waited seven years. He returned to his native land on May 18.
>> To read also: Burkina Faso: Jocelyn Elliott posts a video for her husband who is still a hostage
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong says to herself “ very happy when she made the announcement to the press this Friday morning, local time: the return to his family of the 88-year-old doctor.
Kenneth Elliott has found his wife and children in Perth, the large coastal city in the south-west of the mainland island.
« There was no ransom »
He and his wife, Jocelyn, founded a clinic in Djibo, in the province of Soum, in northern Burkina Faso, in 1972.
His relatives and the government have worked tirelessly to obtain this release, says the head of Australian diplomacy.
His family wrote regularly to the Australian and Burkinabè authorities. But everything was done discreetly. ” There was no ransom “says the Australian public television ABC.
There had been meager echoes during the detention of Kenneth Elliott: a video in July 2017, a year and a half following his abduction.
>> To read also: Burkina: 2000th day of detention for the Australian Elliott kidnapped by the GSIM
And then these words from Sophie Pétronin, in October 2020: the French hostage, then just released, explains that she lived with the Australian for two months. Every day she went for walks with him. She described him at the time as ” serene, sane and relatively healthy despite his age ».
A ” force ” and an ” resilience of the now ex-hostage and his family, hailed this morning by the Australian authorities…
1684488205
#Australian #doctor #Kenneth #Elliott #kidnapped #Burkina #Faso #released
