SYDNEY: An 88-year-old Australian doctor held captive in West Africa by Al-Qaeda militants for over seven years has been released.
According to the BBC, Australia’s foreign minister said Dr Kenneth Elliott was well and safe and had been reunited with his family.
He and his wife were seized by Al-Qaeda militants in 2016 near the border between Burkina Faso and Mali, where they operated a clinic for over 40 years. Al-Qaeda said at the time that it had abducted the couple.
The group released his wife, Jocelyn, after three weeks following public pressure and what it described as “guidance” from its leaders not to involve women in war.
His family said in a statement, “Kenneth, and after many years away from home, Elliott now needs time and privacy to rest and rebuild strength. We thank you for your understanding and sympathy.”
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong acknowledged Elliott and his family’s resilience “through the most difficult circumstances.”
She said, “We extend our thanks to the Australian officials who have worked over many years to secure Elliott’s release and support his family.”
Originally from Perth, Elliott and his wife ran a 120-bed clinic in Dijbo in Burkina Faso, where he was the surgeon.
Following their capture, local people started a Facebook page to campaign for their release.
One post read, “Elliott is a Burkinabe and a humane person… He represents the best of humanity.”
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other extremist groups in West and North Africa have long used kidnapping for ransom to raise money.
The group, rooted in Algeria’s bitter civil war in the 1990s, operates across the Sahel location south of the Sahara Desert and within Mali and Burkina Faso.
In 2013, ex-colonial occupier France sent 5,000 forces to Mali to fight against the group and its partners, and in 2020 killed AQIM leader Abdelmalek Droukdel.
But France pulled out the previous year amid growing unpopularity in Mali over its military operation.
