During the night of April 4 to 5, “the kidnappers arrived in the number of about ten, according to what the witnesses told me,” explained Bishop Théophile Naré.
“Sister Suellen’s door was not locked. They tied her up, and they started driving her to the outer yard. It lasted 1h30, 2h, and then they moved away”, he continued. According to him, five people, including three nuns, were in the Yalgo parish, which was targeted by the attackers. Only Suellen Tennyson, 83 years old, was abducted.
Yalgo is located in the province of Namentenga, between Kaya and Dori, two major cities in northern Burkina Faso, a region that has been regularly targeted by jihadist attacks for the past seven years. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
According to the diocese, the nun had been serving in Yalgo since October 2014. This is the first time in nearly a year that Westerners have been targeted in Burkina Faso. In late April 2021, two Spaniards and an Irishman, initially reported missing, had been executed.