Gunmen Kidnap US Missionary During Sermon In South Africa

Gunmen in South Africa have abducted a United States missionary, Pastor Josh Sullivan from his church while delivering a sermon.

Police and a colleague of the abducted cleric said on Friday that Sullivan was abducted on Thursday at the
Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell outside the coastal city of Gqeberha in what appeared to be a kidnapping for ransom.

A statement by the police said, “It is alleged that while a sermon was conducted at the church, four armed and masked male suspects entered the church.

“They robbed two cell phones and then took the 45-year-old male pastor with them and fled the scene.”

Reverend Jeremy Hall, a pastor also based in the southeastern city, told AFP that the abduction was probably “financially related”.

Hall said Sullivan was holding a prayer meeting with about 30 people, including his wife and six children when four kidnappers entered the church.

“They knew him by name,” he said.

The source added that the gunmen took the cleric at gunpoint, forced him into his car, and drove off.

The abandoned car was recovered about 1.5 kilometres (less than a mile) from the church.

Sullivan arrived in South Africa with his family from Tennessee in November 2018, according to his personal website.

The police anti-gang unit said a Chinese national was kidnapped Tuesday in the city, which is on the Indian Ocean and about 920 kilometres (570 miles) South-East of Johannesburg.

Kidnappings by criminal gangs that target people for whom large ransoms can be demanded, have reportedly been on the increase in South Africa in recent years.

There were more than 17,000 kidnappings in South Africa in the 2023/2024 financial year, an 11-percent increase over the previous year, according to police statistics.