Gunmen in South Africa have kidnapped a U.S. missionary from his church as he used to be handing over a sermon, police and a colleague mentioned Friday.
Pastor Josh Sullivan used to be kidnapped overdue Thursday on the Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell out of doors the coastal town of Gqeberha in what gave the impression to be a kidnapping for ransom, a colleague informed AFP.
Kidnappings, together with by means of legal gangs that focus on other people for whom huge ransoms will also be demanded, were expanding in South Africa lately.
“It’s alleged that whilst a sermon used to be performed on the church, 4 armed and masked male suspects entered the church,” police mentioned in a remark. “They robbed two cellphones after which took the 45-year-old male pastor with them and fled the scene.”
A spokesperson from the U.S. State Division told the BBC that they had been acutely aware of the abduction of an American citizen in South Africa.
Rev. Jeremy Corridor, a pastor additionally primarily based within the southeastern town, informed AFP the kidnapping used to be almost certainly “financially similar.”
Sullivan used to be conserving a prayer assembly with about 30 other people, together with his spouse and 6 youngsters, when the armed kidnappers entered, Corridor mentioned.
“They knew him by means of identify,” he mentioned. They took him at gunpoint and compelled him into his automobile and drove off. The deserted automobile used to be recovered a few mile from the church.
Sullivan arrived in South Africa along with his circle of relatives from Tennessee in November 2018, in line with his personal website.
“We want to end language faculty quickly and plant a church to the Xhosa talking other people,” he writes on his web site.
Sullivan has been at the body of workers at Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, since February of 2012, in line with the site.
“Please pray for Josh Sullivan, missionary to South Africa,” the church wrote on its Fb web page.
The police anti-gang unit mentioned a Chinese language nationwide used to be additionally abducted Tuesday within the town, which is at the Indian Ocean and about 570 miles southeast of Johannesburg.
There have been greater than 17,000 kidnappings in South Africa within the 2023-2024 monetary 12 months, an 11-percent building up over the former 12 months, in line with police statistics.
South Africa has additionally been plagued by means of escalating gun violence. Every day, 33 persons are killed by means of weapons in South Africa, in accordance Gun Free South Africa, a nonprofit advocating for decreased gun violence.
