ICC Note:
74-year-old Catholic nun and Canadian citizen Gilberte Bussière and two Italian priests, Fathers Gianantonio Allegri and Giampaolo Marta, who were kidnapped by suspected members of radical Islamist front Boko-Haram on April 4th, 2014 remain in hostage. The second such kidnapping in less than 6 months, the victims were taken during an armed raid of a small, rural Catholic school in Tchéré. As Boko Haram rages about Nigeria, killing an alleged 210 this week alone, according to a Borno State Nigerian Senator, ICC questions the terrorist organization’s motive in the kidnapping, and whether this event points to a potential new strategy—the targeted kidnapping of Christians chaste to a vow of poverty.
04/12/2014 Cameroon (World Watch Monitor) – A Canadian nun and two Italian priests have been kidnapped by armed men in northern Cameroon, a region which serves as a base for Nigeria’s radical Islamist group Boko Haram.
The Canadian nun, Gilberte Bussiere, 75, has been in Cameroon for nearly 40 years. The two priests were identified as Giampaolo Marta, 47, and Gianantonio Allegri, 57, from the diocese of Vicenza in the northeast of Italy. According to local sources, Father Marta has been in Cameroon for 10 years, while Allegri had returned to the country in September after working there in the 1990s. They’ve all been involved in social development, especially in education.
The three clerics were taken hostage on the night of 4 April after a group of armed men stormed their small parish in Tchéré, 18 km from the Diocese of Maroua – Mokolo, and ransacked church buildings before heading toward Mora, near the Nigeria border.
Since then, security forces have engaged in a search operation with helicopters, but there is still no news regarding the clerics. On Saturday, Cameroon’s Defence Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, visited the area and expressed the government’s solidarity with the affected community.
During Sunday services, dismay and sadness were high among the worshippers, said Father Henri Djonyang, Vicar General of the Diocese of Maroua.
”What happened leaves us speechless. Why do peaceful people working for the wellbeing of the population get kidnapped?” he told World Watch Monitor, as his voice barely concealed his indignation.
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