He continues, “Together with the Christian community of Yalgo, her Sisters and the members of Sr. Suellen’s family, we give thanks to God.”
Sr. Tennyson who has been serving in the Catholic Diocese of Kaya since October 2014 was taken to an unknown destination by her kidnappers on the fateful night.
Though three Marianite sisters were living in the house in Burkina Faso at the time, Sr. Tennyson was the only one kidnapped during the assailants’ invasion of the home. Sister Pauline Drouin, a nurse from Quebec, and Sister Pascaline Tougma, from Burkina Faso, were unharmed in the attack. Lacour said she believes the gunmen may have been looking for money and medicine.
In his statement issued April 5, Bishop Nare said the abductors of the American-born Nun “vandalized rooms (and) damaged the community vehicle, which they attempted to take with them.”
“Until the search for her is successful, we remain in communion of prayer for the release of Sr. Suellen Tennyson,” the Catholic Bishop had implored.
In his August 30 statement, Bishop Nare invites “all the sons and daughters of the Church family of Kaya to remain in prayer for the release of other hostages.”
“We are thinking in particular of Fr. Joël Yougbare, of the Diocese of Fada, who was on mission in the diocese of Dori at the time of his abduction,” he says.
Burkina Faso, one of the ten countries in the Sahel region, has been facing rampant violence occasioned by political crises, which offer a fertile ground for the proliferation of extremist groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and the al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.
On August 30, the current Marianite congregational leader, Sr. Ann Lacour, told the Clarion Herald, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans in the United States (US) that Sr. Tennyson is now safe and in the hands of U.S. authorities.
“She is safe. She is on American soil, but not in America. She is safe. She was recovered (Monday) morning. We have spoken to her. She eventually will get back to the United States,” Sr. Lacour said.
