American pastor kidnapped the gun while preaching in South Africa: “They know his name”
Police and a colleague said Friday that South African gunman kidnapped an American missionary from his church while preaching.
Pastor Josh Sullivan was kidnapped Thursday night at Motherwell Scholarship Baptist Church outside the coastal city of Gqeberha, which appeared to be a ransom kidnapping, a colleague told AFP.
In recent years, the number of kidnappings, including those targeting criminal gangs, has been increasing.
“There were allegedly four armed and covered male suspects entered the church during a sermon,” police said in a statement. “They snatched two cell phones and fled the scene with a 45-year-old male pastor.”
A U.S. State Department spokesman told the BBC they knew of a kidnapped by a US citizen in South Africa.
Rev. Jeremy Hall, a pastor based in the southeastern city, told AFP that the kidnapping could be “financially related.”
Hall said Sullivan was holding a prayer meeting with about 30 people, including his wife and six children, when armed kidnappers entered.
“They knew him by their name,” he said. They took him to the gun, forced him into the car and drove away. An abandoned car about a mile from the church was recovered.
According to his personal website, Sullivan arrived in South Africa with his family from Tennessee in November 2018.
“We hope to complete the language school as soon as possible and build a church to those who speak to Xhosa,” he wrote on the website.
According to the website, Sullivan has been working at the Scholarship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee since February 2012.
“Pray for South African missionary Josh Sullivan,” the church wrote on its Facebook page.
Police oppose the tribute unit that a Chinese national was also kidnapped in the Indian Ocean, about 570 miles southeast of Johannesburg.
According to police statistics, in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, there were more than 17,000 kidnappings in South Africa, an increase of 11% over the previous year.
South Africa is also plagued by escalating gun violence. In South Africa without guns, 33 people are killed by guns every day, a nonprofit organization advocates reducing gun violence.
