An 88-year-old Australian doctor held hostage in Africa for more than seven years by al Qaeda-linked militants has been reunited with his family after being released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Ken Elliott and his wife Jocelyn, who together ran a medical clinic in Burkina Faso, were kidnapped in 2016 by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – an African affiliate of the jihadist group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mrs Elliott was released three weeks later following a joint effort by Burkina Faso’s intelligence service and the then president of neighboring Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong said Dr Elliott had now been released and had since been reunited with his wife and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m very pleased to advise that Dr Ken Elliott, who’s been held hostage in Western Africa for some seven years, has been reunited in Australia with his family,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No further details were disclosed about Dr Elliott’s release, but Ms Wong said no ransom had been paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Australian government has a clear policy that we do not pay ransoms,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What we have done over the last seven years is ensure that we worked with other governments and local authorities in relation to Dr Elliott.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A family statement said: “We wish to express our thanks to God and all who have continued to pray for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We express our relief that Dr Elliott is free and thank the Australian government and all who have been involved over time to secure his release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“At 88 years of age, and after many years away from home, Dr Elliott now needs time and privacy to rest and rebuild strength.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An 88-year-old Australian doctor held hostage in Africa for more than seven years by al Qaeda-linked militants has been reunited with his family after being released. Dr Ken Elliott and his wife Jocelyn, who together ran a medical clinic in Burkina Faso, were kidnapped in 2016 by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[2643,2646,422,2645,2644],"class_list":["post-6816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-al-qaeda","tag-captive","tag-doctor","tag-reunited","tag-seven-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6818,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions\/6818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}