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BURKINA-INDIA-SAFRICA-KIDNAPPING
Indian, S. African among three kidnapped in Burkina Faso
OUAGADOUGOU, Sept 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – An Indian and a South African were
among three mine workers kidnapped in a northern part of Burkina Faso which
has been repeatedly targeted by jihadists, sources told AFP.
“The three men of Indian, South African and Burkinabe nationality were
kidnapped by unidentified armed men” between the Inata gold mine and the town
of Djibo bordering Mali and Niger, a security source told AFP.
The kidnapping was confirmed by a fellow mine worker who said the three
men “left the site (of the mine) around 8:00 am and by 10:00 am they had no
more news of them”.
“After alerting the defence and security forces, we learned there had been
a kidnapping,” said the worker, declining to be named.
The kidnappers are “probably members of jihadist groups operating in the
region”, said another security source in the capital Ouagadougou, adding that
the assailants “headed towards the Mali border, and have likely already
crossed it”.
It is not the first time that foreign workers have been kidnapped in
Burkina Faso.
Romanian Iulian Ghergut was abducted in 2015 by the Al-Mourabitoun group,
linked to Al-Qaeda, and he remains in captivity.
In January 2016, another group kidnapped Australian Kenneth Elliot and his
wife Jocelyn, both in their eighties, in Djibo.
Jocelyn was released but her husband, who had been working in the country
for decades, is still being held.
There have also been incidents in other parts of the troubled Sahel
country and an Italian missionary was last week kidnapped in neighbouring
Niger.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0917 hrs