Swiss Christian Missionary Beatrice Stockly
Kidnapped by Muslim Extremists Appears in New
Video One year after she was kidnapped by Islamic
extremists, a third video has emerged of Swiss
missionary Beatrice Stockly, in which she says
she is in "good health" despite her bleak
circumstances.
According to the Middle East Monitor , the video
was released by the Sahara division of al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on Tuesday via
Twitter and lasts 2.17 minutes. In it, Stockly
appears clad in a black veil and speaks in French,
with a feeble voice barely audible.
In the video, Stockly says the date of the
recording is late December and that she has been
held captive by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
(Aqim) for 360 days. She greets her family and
thanks the Swiss government "for all the efforts
they have made".
"I am in good health," she adds.
In late January 2016, al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb claimed responsibility in a video for
Stockly's kidnapping, which took place that same
month.
The group said it would free her in exchange for a
number of Al-Qaeda militants jailed in Mali and
one of their leaders held in The Hague; however,
Switzerland has demanded her release without
conditions.
The video is the third footage released by the
terrorist group since her kidnap in Mali's northern
city of Timbuktu a year ago, according to reports.
At the time, armed men knocked at her home and
took her after she opened the door.
The group released a second similar video in mid-
June to prove she was still alive.
"Beatrice Stockly is a Swiss nun who declared
war against Islam in her attempt to Christianize
Muslims," the speaker said in the second video.
Stockly, who is in her 50's, is a Christian
missionary who began her work in Africa by
responding to an advertisement in 2002 placed by
an Evangelical Christian pastor who led a
Germany-based missionary group called Neues
Leben Ghana, or "New Life Ghana". Stockly
traveled to Mali with the group and worked with
them in Timbuktu for a few years before going out
on her own.
She was first abducted by jihadists in northern
Mali's Timbuktu in 2012. On that occasion, she
was freed about two weeks later, and opted to
keep living in Mali.
"I can't talk about it, I'm really in shock," Stockly
told the media just after her release.
According to World Watch Monitor, AQIM, which
is based in the Sahara Desert between Mali, Niger
and Algeria, was involved in the January attack in
Ouagadougou, the capital of neighbouring Burkina
Faso, which left 29 dead, including a US
missionary and six Canadians visiting the country
on behalf of a church. Last week AQIM released
Jocelyn Elliott, an Australian Christian woman
kidnapped with her husband
as "not to make women involved in the war".
http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/69302/20170111/swiss-christian-missionary-beatrice-stockly-kidnapped-muslim-extremists-appears-new.htm