Suellen Tennyson, 83, was abducted from her church in Yalgo on Monday night, according to the local diocese.

In Burkina Faso’s northern diocese, armed men kidnapped an 83-year-old American nun, said the bishop of the diocese.

“Sister Suellen Tennyson was taken to an unknown destination by her kidnappers who, before leaving, vandalised rooms (and) sabotaged the community vehicle, which they tried to take,” said Kaya Bishop Theophile Nare.

She was abducted on Monday night in the parish of Yalgo, which is part of the Kaya diocese, where she had been a member of the Marianites of Holy Cross since 2014.

The bishop stated that he was unaware of the identity of Tennyson’s kidnappers.

Armed organizations in Burkina Faso have taken over vast sections of the country, with some having ties to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS). They regularly target the army and civilians. In 2019, a Canadian was found dead in the country after being kidnapped.

In a statement, the US Embassy in Burkina Faso said it was aware of reports of a missing US citizen and that it was “working diligently with local authorities to verify these reports and is monitoring the situation.”

The military administration of Burkina Faso has stated that security is its top concern, and this week unveiled a new strategy to bolster army operations against armed groups.

Yalgo is close to the province of Soum, where almost 70 people were killed in two incidents in November, and it’s not far from Mali, where Human Rights Watch estimates that over 100 civilians have been killed in recent months.

Image credit: Getty

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