Found Alive Burkina Faso (Africa) - Edith Blais, 34 & Luca Tacchetto, 30, Canada & Italy tourists, 15 Dec 2018

[ZaZara]

I was able to find a bit more of the text from the Il Mattino article ZaZara referenced above (so this excerpt starts after the sentence ending in “mystery man”):

“Luca Tacchetto, the thirty-year-old architect who disappeared in Burkina Faso on December 15th with his Canadian friend Edith Blais, left a trace [behind]. It is the last message sent to the mother, in the late afternoon of that Saturday, December 15, before disappearing among the mysteries of Africa. From that message sent by Whatsapp you can certainly understand three things: Luca was sensitive to the charisma of the Frenchman, the Frenchman changed the route, and then also gave him information on how and where to sell the car. Robert Guilloteau tells of having personally accompanied them to pick up [money] at the ATM. In fact, there are two withdrawals of 250 euros each but the movements are [December] 12th and not December 8th. Marginal note: € 500 a month is the average salary of a rich man living in Burkina Faso, while the poor, the majority, live with around € 48 per month.”

Also, when I Google Translated the Il Mattino passage quoted by ZaZara, the comment about the phone number read a bit differently than rendered above; apparently RG initially said he had Luca’s phone number, but then claimed he did not have it.

This flip-flop on a seemingly trivial issue seems shady as hell to me, as does RG’s alleged recommendation that Luca and Edith withdraw what would have been, in that area, an obscene amount of cash. This makes me wonder if RG had any incentive to recommend this large withdrawal, such as being guaranteed a “cut” (which I’m putting in quotation marks because it’s a colloquial term, NOT a direct quote ) of the proceeds from a preplanned robbery? For a guy who seems to be a bit miffed at those who perceive him as “mysterious,” he’s not doing much to fight that appearance by flip-flopping on details or admitting to making unsafe (or at least unwise) travel recommendations to LT/EB...

MOO

The last news from Luca and Edith dates from December 15.

They would have taken money from an ATM on December 12 and not on December 8.
Who claimed it would have been December 8? Where were they on December 8? If they took out 250 euros each week, this makes a little more sense.

So where did that happen? In Bobo Dioulasso? or on the road while they were still in another country? When and where exactly did they meet Robert?

I was under the impression that they were in Robert's house for the first time on the evening of the selfie that they sent. If they had arrived there days earlier, surely there would have been time to visit that mosque?


IMHO, after living there for so many years, Robert seems to have caught the bug of African time.

 

[ZaZara]

Another tantalizing headline from Il Mattino:

«Sequestrati e poi venduti all’Isis da qualche banda di briganti locali»

" Kidnapped and then sold to Isis by a bunch of local bandits."

According to private investigations, Luca and Edith are being held hostage to request the ransom: the Tacchetto ready to leave

BBM


So, local bandit groups would kidnap people and sell them on to ISIS. This cuts both ways, ISIS does not have to go deep into the country, and the local groups get some money and do not have to go through the hassle of negotiations.

I tried to read the article, I was even ready to pay one euro and fifty cents for today's newspaper and I've been busy for about an hour on what appeared to be a simple transaction when I started, but no digital newspaper has appeared as of yet.

How complicated can it be in this digital day and age? Very complicated. ISIS probably laughing their bums off.

 

[Elainera]

Thank you @ZaZara for posting updates and for trying hard with this particular article! I hope you'll get to access it soon.

I have never heard of IS buying prisoners from other groups of bandits and I hope this is not what happened to Luca and Edith

 

[ZaZara]

Thank you @ZaZara for posting updates and for trying hard with this particular article! I hope you'll get to access it soon.

I have never heard of IS buying prisoners from other groups of bandits and I hope this is not what happened to Luca and Edith

Thanks Elainera for your kind words. I was thinking more along the lines of pretty stupid and wasting precious time, but I gladly replace it with trying hard. I love the positive sound of it.



Still haven't had access to the article,
"Servizio momentaneamente non disponibile. Si prega di riprovare più tardi"
but for the second time, Rete Veneta comes to the rescue:

LUCA ED EDITH SCOMPARSI IN AFRICA: PRENDE CORPO L'IPOTESI DEL RAPIMENTO

LUCA AND EDITH MISSING IN AFRICA: THE HYPOTHESIS OF KIDNAPPING BEGINS TO TAKE SHAPE


The hypothesis of the kidnapping in Burkina Faso of Luca Tacchetto, architect of 30 years and son of the former mayor of Vigonza Nunzio, and his partner Edith Blais, already advocated by the authorities of Canada, the country of origin of the girl, is now being taken into serious consideration in Italy. This is a hypothesis that would be confirmed as probable too also by the network of contacts set up in the African country by the family of the young man.

According to this hypothesis, the two young people would have been kidnapped by a local group which would then have given them to a more structured organization capable of managing a complex negotiation such as that of release against payment of a ransom. The very lack of official communications from Burkina Faso, according to some observers, does not necessarily mean that there are no contacts or negotiations in place, only that these are currently being kept secret. Meanwhile, the Tacchetto family continues to live days of anxious waiting, Luca's father does not rule out the possibility of leaving soon for Burkina Faso.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Burkina Faso. Edith Blais e Luca Tacchetto mai visti alla moschea, vacilla la segnalazione del francese

Burkina Faso. Edith Blais and Luca Tacchetto never seen at the mosque, the Frenchman's report falters

Couple missing in Africa, there is also tension between governments over the words of an official

VIGONZA (PADOVA) Investigations are being done in silence, to find out what happened to the Paduan architect Luca Tacchetto and his Canadian friend Edith Blais, who disappeared in Burkina Faso in December. But the rumors coming from Africa are not good. First of all, there are doubts about the "trail" provided by Robert Guilloteau, the 64-year-old Frenchman who lives in Bobo Dioulasso and who is the last known person to have met the thirty-something couple. He told that he spent the evening of December 15 with them, at dinner and then at a club.

After hosting them for the night, he assured that he had waved them goodbye around 10:30 in the morning. "They were headed to the mosque that is not far from my house. They told me that afterwards they would immediately go to Ouagadougou, the capital. They had to go to the immigration office because their visa lasted only three days and they needed to get a valid visa for Togo and Benin, so they would have spent a little less". The problem is that, according to the local guides who accompany the tourists, Tacchetto and Blais never arrived at the mosque. "No one has seen them - says one of the contacts - and two Western tourists in a car packed with luggage are unlikely to go unnoticed."

If this testimony is confirmed, new questions will arise. Did the young man from Padua and his friend really go to the Islamic temple as suggested by the friend who hosted them? In this case they would have disappeared in the stretch of road between the house of the Frenchman and the mosque. Or they have changed route, perhaps to visit the stone peaks of Sindou Park, as a guide says. He claims to have heard this indication from Robert Guilloteau himself. In the latter case, it would also be worth mentioning those who claim to have noticed the car of the couple in Banfora, along the road that leads to the rocks of Sindou.

Meanwhile an audio file circulates in Burkina. The voice - reported Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the bishops - would be that of a senior official: "Our security services have evidence of their presence in the capital. But no embassy, Italian or Canadian, contacted us to report the disappearance. We have, however, taken action orselves." The absence of an official report from our embassy to the Burkinabe authorities was also reiterated by a local radio station. If it were true, it would be serious. But sources from the Foreign Servoce deny this: "As already explained in recent weeks, from the very beginning (therefore from 24 December, when the Tacchetto family denounced the disappearance of the architect to the Carabinieri, ed) the Italian embassy took action to find our fellow countryman, immediately initiating all the necessary contacts, up to the highest levels, with the authorities of Burkina Faso."


BBM


According to a report on Tripadvisor from a tourist who visited the mosque in October 2018, the mosque would currently be in scaffolding due to maintenance. Other reports about maintenance and reconstruction date from a year before.
If this was still the case in December, IMHO someone could well decide to skip the visit.

 

[ZaZara]

LUCA ED EDITH: L'INCIDENTE STRADALE ACCANTO ALL'IPOTESI RAPIMENTO

LUCA AND EDITH: THE CAR ACCIDENT ALONGSIDE THE KIDNAPPING HYPOTHESIS

At the Public Prosecutor's Office in Rome, the file on the disappearance of Luca Tacchetto in Burkina Faso is supervised by the public prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco: the same magistrate who investigated the kidnapping of Gianluca Salvatio, the technician from Trebaseleghe who was kidnapped in Libya by a group of Islamic terrorists, and the death in Egypt of researcher Giulio Regeni from Friulia. But the mobilization set up by Italy and Canada, the country of origin of the woman who travelled with the 30 year old from Vigonza, includes not only the official channels but also, for example, the missions of volunteers present in the area. The sightings of the two young people have not led to concrete results and among the hypotheses on the table, the kidnapping remains the prevailing one.

Alongside this, however, the possibility of a road accident is also being explored. The car journey of almost 10,000 kilometres from Veneto to Togo also included stretches of road that were sometimes dangerous. However, the health facilities checked so far have given negative results. Certainly, as told by Luca's father, the former mayor of Vigonza Nunzio Tacchetto, one of the first things learned by the family in this case is that the response time in the area where the disappearance occurred is much longer than in Europe.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Pas questionnée malgré sa ressemblance avec la disparue

No questions asked despite her resemblance to the missing woman

A Quebec woman living in Burkina Faso does not believe that the case is being taken seriously

A Quebec woman living in Burkina Faso does not perceive any sense of urgency among the authorities and the population regarding the disappearance of Sherbrooke's Edith Blais and her friend.

"No one here is talking about the missing Canadian woman," Stéphanie Beauchamp said. She spoke by phone in Koudougou yesterday. "The people I talked to in the sector about it, I was the one who told them. I showed their pictures. They hadn't seen them."

Since mid-November, the 38-year-old Montreal woman has been working as a social worker near the place where Edith Blais and her Italian friend were last seen, between Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou, the capital of the African country, on December 15.

Canadian women. White. In their thirties. Frequently wearing a headband and braids. The common features of both women are striking, Beauchamp admits.

This week, on her way to Ouagadougou, she met members of the local authorities.

"They didn't even ask for my passport to find out who I was," she said, surprised, after simply being waved on. "I don't feel like this disappearance is being taken seriously."

To the knowledge of Ms. Beauchamp, only one television medium reportedly mentioned the Canadian's disappearance, saying that the information came from Ottawa.

"It's so disorganized. Here, information arrives much more slowly to people than in Quebec, where we are still connected. We have quick access to the media."

However, police surveillance on the roads has reportedly increased since the authorities declared a state of emergency on 31 December due to fears of terrorist attacks.

"I received an alert from the [Canadian] Embassy telling me to be careful and not to go north and to the borders," says Ms. Beauchamp.

However, efforts do not seem to be focused on finding the couple of friends, according to the Montreal woman.

After the media coverage of the Sherbrooke woman's disappearance, Ms. Beauchamp received a ton of messages from relatives who were concerned for her safety.

In her region, there was nothing circulating in the media about it.

"I have a lot of friends, I'm very well cared for. There is no violence, aggressiveness or fear, where I am. The state of emergency is not felt at all," she said.

According to her, the concerns of Burkinabe people are more focused on their daily lives.

"Here, people are thinking about what they're going to eat for lunch and how they're going to get there. They don't worry about the news from the outside," Beauchamp explained.


BBM

 

[dotr]

Wishing someone could fly around the region and drop flyers with a pic and some information about the missing couple, perhaps also offer a small reward?

 

[ZaZara]

Wishing someone could fly around the region and drop flyers with a pic and some information about the missing couple, perhaps also offer a small reward?

The distance between Sindou and Ouagadougou is approximately 500 kms. It is not known what route Luca and Edith have taken, nor where they disappeared.
Don't know how many flyers it would take to cover an area vast like that one but I imagine one would need a big plane ....


Their case has been on local radio already and a reward has been offered. IMHO it is possible that expats like Ms Beauchamp do not listen to local radio.

From an earlier post:

On radio Canada, Gagnon says that he is "organizing the communication, so that the news goes out in all the media of Burkina Faso" and promises a reward for anyone who has "relevant information that allows Edith and Luca to be found."
"Here, if you want to make things move - he concludes - there is always a financial aspect. So my wife and I decided to contribute a little bit, with about 2,500 dollars."

Today Sunday, January 6, the most important broadcaster in the country of Central West Africa, dedicates a radio broadcast to the case. Also, a telephone connection is planned with the mother and sister of the young woman who are in Sherbrooke, which is also the city where Édith was born. The intention is make an appeal for them to be found.

BURKINA FASO (Africa) - Edith Blais, 34 & Luca Tacchetto, 30, Canada & Italy tourists, 15 Dec 2018

 

[JerseyGirl]

YOU SAID IT: Don’t tempt fate, adventurers

 

[Cryptic]

I have never heard of IS buying prisoners from other groups of bandits and I hope this is not what happened to Luca and Edith

Sadly, ISIS buying western captives from bandits or other Jihadi groups is very common.

For example, Kayla Mueller (American woman captured by ISIS in Syria) was initially captured by an armed group that was jihadi fighting the Assad government, but also known to set up “shake down” checkpoints in which they extorted cash from locals and looked for valuable people (meaning those people with ransom potential) to kidnap.

When they identified Kayla as a westerner at a check point, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Shortly after kidnapping her, however, they sold her to ISIS for purportedly between 50-75,000 dollars.

The sale of western captives to ISIS is probably even more likely in lesser developed Burkina Faso. The bandits could well be from a rural background who took up highway robbery / extortion. If so, they would not have the resources to keep the captives fed, healthy, and one step ahead of police and army units looking for them- let alone coordinate ransom demands / payments from over seas.

Thus, they would find an ISIS offer of “instant cash” very tempting. My guess is that given the lack of development in the area, even a moderate amount of cash offered (still in the tens of thousands of dollars) would be small fortunes to the bandits.

 

[dotr]

Merchants of Men
Merchants of Men: How Jihadists and ISIS Turned Kidnapping and Refugee Trafficking into a Multi-Billion Dollar Business

Loretta Napoleoni
Seven Stories Press, Aug. 30, 2016 - Political Science - 240 pages

"A powerful and sophisticated underground business delivers thousands of refugees a day all along the Mediterranean coasts of Europe. The new breed of criminals that controls it has risen out of the political chaos of post-9/11 Western foreign policy and the fiasco of the Arab Spring. These merchants of men are intertwined with jihadist armed organizations such as al Qaeda in the Maghreb. They have prospered smuggling cocaine from West Africa and kidnapping Westerners. More recently, the destabilization of Syria and Iraq coupled with the rise of ISIS offered them new business opportunities in the Middle East, from selling Western hostages to jihadist groups to trafficking in refugees numbering in the millions.

Overall, the kidnapping industry today is bigger than the illegal drug trade and worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Merchants of Men is based on exclusive access to hostage negotiators actively involved in ransom negotiations and rescue missions, counter-terrorism experts, members of security services, and former hostages, among many others. The reader will discover that the protocols of prevention and rescue change according to the type of abduction and the designated targets, and will come to know first hand the range of experiences of kidnapping victims."

 

[Elainera]

Thank you Cryptic and dotr! A dark subject I knew nothing about. Would love to read that book.

 

[ZaZara]

Blog | Niger, le sparizioni forzate non sono nuove qui. Comprese quelle degli invisibili - Il Fatto Quotidiano

Niger, the forced disappearances are not new here. Including those of the invisible

Luca Tacchetto, with his friend Edith, the car and the alleged invitation to dinner, has also disappeared in nearby Burkina Faso since almost a month. As for Pierluigi Maccalli, the months since his disappearance from Niger are now four. It is not difficult to remember their names. It is more complicated to know their names for the 15 girls kidnapped near the village of Toumour in the area of Diffa, on Lake Tchad. Even worse for the 39 people who disappeared in similar circumstances around the same region two years ago.

Nobody is interested in the list of names and the few attempts to make it public have not had the desired effect. In these parts one disappears from one day to the next without leaving a trace. It doesn't matter if you are in the age of global controls and communications. The forced disappearances in the Sahel are nothing new. Over time we have become accustomed, not without some resistance, to disappearing from one day to the next into nothingness, indeed into the dust of the wind.

There is no news of the German humanitarian, whose name does not appear in the news - he disappeared on 11 April last year -. The same is true of the American hostage, a certain Jeffery Woodke, who was taken from his home in Abalak near Tahoua on 14 October 2016. On that occasion, a soldier and a security officer, both Nigerians, were killed. As for their names, few or none of them have been taken into consideration, they too have disappeared like many others. Unpleasant to say, but it is good to be honest as much as possible.

(...)


BBM


Dust in the wind .... this reflection was written by a missionary. He goes on to mention the many nameless people who are disappearing daily.


If Luca and Edith have been kidnapped for a ransom, then they are the lucky ones.
If not, Edith may in a way survive thanks to her blue eyes.

Slavery has never disappeared from these regions. It was never abolished. If we speak of Modern Slavery nowadays, there is nothing new or moderne about it, it is simply the continuation of the ancient practice.

Thread for the Chibok girls:
Nigeria - Extremists Kidnap New Group of 200+ Girls, 14 Apr 2014

There is no separate thread about what ISIS (and others) did to the Yazidis and the Yazidi women that I can find. Don't look it up if you want to sleep tonight.

 

[Vail]

I find it odd this other similar woman can move about with no threat - while it highlights how poor the vigilance is of the authorities there, it also makes a random kidnapping based on nationality less likely IMO. This couple must have come in contact with someone in a unique situation...

 

[ZaZara]

I find it odd this other similar woman can move about with no threat - while it highlights how poor the vigilance is of the authorities there, it also makes a random kidnapping based on nationality less likely IMO. This couple must have come in contact with someone in a unique situation...

No threat? That is what they say or feel. It does not have to be a realistic reprenstation of the real level of threat. I have noticed this in many similar discussions, (often) women say they felt safe in place x and unsafe in place y. Usually this was a feeling, especially about being safe and no objective risk assessment.

IMHO Luca and Edith stood out like a lighthouse on fire: they are white, their car has a foreign registration, they are strangers wherever they go and judging by Edith's pictures they were interested in the romantic side of Africa.They may have been targeted, or they were a lucky catch for a gang who was waiting for a target to pass by. But don't be deceived by some of the things Stéphanie Beauchamp says below, Africa has mobile phones too.

The advice by security experts and NGO's is to fly to Togo and have somenone from the receiving organization meet you at the airport and take you to your location. A road trip like the one of Luca and Edith is deemed too risky.
If nothing happens, those who took the road trip will say beautiful trip! and they never felt unsafe, what they should be saying is that nothing happened and they probably would not have stood a chance if it had.

The feelings about security abound in this report, yet these women too take precautions, among them they limit their radius and travels:

Burkina Faso: des Québécoises se disent en sécurité

Burkina Faso: Quebec women declare themselves safe

Quebec women living in Burkina Faso feel safe, despite the disappearance of Sherbrooke's Edith Blais, who last gave a sign of life a month ago.

"As far as security is concerned, it's not bad," says Maude J. Coulombe, a Sherbrooke woman who has lived in this country for a year and a half. "We haven't really changed our way of life. It is rare that I go outside Ouaga. In general, Burkinabe people like foreigners. I always felt safe. People think we're in a war zone, but that's really not it."

After Edith Blais' case was on social media last week, things seem to have calmed down. "I saw a news boom. I have many contacts who work in embassies that sent me messages. This week, nothing more. I see a Facebook publication once in a while," says the Sherbrooke woman.

The woman was really "shocked" by the traveller's disappearance. Yet, the feeling of helplessness is present. "It's near my home. Everyone is shocked. There are hypotheses everywhere, we don't know what to believe. We're trying to help, but I'm a speech therapist, what can I do besides put publications on Facebook? I find it difficult to see that a Sherbrooke woman is missing."

Stéphanie Beauchamp, who has lived in Koudougou since November, the country's third largest city, regrets the lack of information on the disappearance of Edith Blais and her companion Luca Tacchetto, an Italian.

"Most people don't have TV or electricity. There's a place not far from where I live where there's TV, but they broadcast football games. It's not the information. In bars, there is sometimes TV and they write the news. People are not interested in information," she says, explaining that information is shared more by word of mouth.

"All the people I talk to, I tell them that a Canadian woman is missing," she continues. No one here is looking. Last Wednesday, I went to the capital. When we left, the driver told me it was going to be complicated because of police controls. Besides, I'm white and I'm the same age as the girl who disappeared. But when you go past the police checkpoint, it's the other way around. When they see whites, they wave a nice goodbye with their hands[...] If you are actively looking for someone, like when Cedrika disappeared, everyone knew her face. Everyone was looking for a red car. People here don't even know that a Canadian woman is missing."

Despite this, Mrs. Beauchamp feels safe. "Where I am, it's really quiet. Muslims and Catholics celebrated Christmas together. I don't see any aggression and I don't feel any tensions related to religions. But I don't do sightseeing. At the end of my stay, I had planned to take a bus to Bobo to visit, but I dropped the project. I don't want to take unnecessary risks," she says.


BBM

 

[Cryptic]

I find it odd this other similar woman can move about with no threat ...

There could well be a general threat, but the key may be where she moves around. I would not be surprised if more than a few westerners or those married to westerners live their entire lives in upper class neighborhoods and nearby upper class shopping malls and restaurants.

In every country, upper class areas are safer. In developing countries, they can be different worlds with what are essentially fortified homes protected by police check points, private security guards and even paramilitary units. As developing countries often lack western constitutional issues, drive throughs by either the curious, or would be criminals- really anybody who does "belong" are simply forbidden. All of this serves to prevent kidnappings.

it also makes a random kidnapping based on nationality less likely IMO. This couple must have come in contact with someone in a unique situation...

I agree- but the needed 'unique behavior' is probably just straying from protected upper class areas, and especially straying unto highways in rural areas.

 

[ZaZara]

Un mese fa un italiano è scomparso in Burkina faso. E non se ne sa nulla

One month ago, an italian disappeared in Burkina Faso. And no one has any news about him

Disappeared into thin air in Burkina Faso. Luca Tacchetto and Edith Blais have been missing since December 16th. The Italian and his Canadian friend had reached Burkina Faso by car - starting from Italy - after having crossed Mauritania and Mali, and then reaching Togo. They were on their way to Kpalimé, a small town in Togo, where they were to join a non-governmental organisation linked to the environment.

Nothing is known about them, a month has passed without any news. The last time they were seen in the city in the southwest of the country, Bobo Dioulassou. It was the French citizen Robert Guilloteau who told that he hosted them in his home on 15 December 2018. The two young people left again on the morning of December 16 and would have been on their way to the mosque of Bobo Dioullasou. From there they would depart for the capital of Burkina Faso, again according to the account of the Frenchman, where they would have to obtain regular visas and those for Togo and Benin. Theirs only lasted three days. From that point, there is nothing more. The Italian embassy in Côte d'Ivoire, which is also responsible for Burkina Faso, is following the case with the utmost attention and caution.

There are many hypotheses, which remain only suggestions. Nothing is excluded. They could have been kidnapped by terrorist groups, which infest the whole sub-region, or by common criminals. But no claim has arrived. Moreover, the Jihadist groups have an interest in attracting international attention. That no claim has arrived is a very strange fact. But not even a ransom demand from a group of common criminals has arrived. This too is unlikely. The case, therefore, is shrouded in mystery.

The journey undertaken by the two young people went through very dangerous areas of the African continent. The whole belt of the Sahel, that is, from Mauritania to Mali, from Niger to Chad, including Burkina Faso, is an area of terrorist presence and of continuous migratory flow from the sub-Saharan belt of Africa towards, precisely, the Sahel. Among Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso there are six people in the hands of the Jihadists, including the Italian missionary Luigi Maccalli (*), kidnapped in Niger on September 17, 2018.

Burkina Faso, which has long remained immune from terrorist phenomena, has in recent years become a country at risk and dangerous where there have been numerous attacks at the hands of jihadists. The dangerousness of the country, which seemed to be "limited" to the North of the country, has in recent months spread to other regions, including those of the East, right on the border with Togo and Mali. It is no coincidence that the National Assembly of Burkina Faso extended the state of emergency, proclaimed by President Roch Marc Kaboré on 31 December last, for another six months. Motivating the declaration of the state of emergency, the president explained: "We consider the regions in the north as very insecure as the southern ones on the border with Togo and Benin. Our soldiers still can't manage the range of action of Islamic militants that is getting bigger and bigger".

The state of emergency concerns 14 provinces out of 45, spread over six regions that have recorded terrorist attacks. The last of which took place on 10 January in Gasseliki, a village in the Sahel region. And it was precisely as a result of this act of war, which caused numerous civilian casualties, that the chief of staff of the army was fired by President Burkinabe. The Jihadist incursions, which until a few months ago concerned the north of the country, also extended to the areas bordering Togo and Benin. Attacks, such as those that occurred in the capital Ouagadougou (the last in March 2018), attributed to the jihadist groups of Ansaroul Islam and the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (Gsim). The attacks have caused more than 270 deaths since 2015.


BBM



* I did a small check on Luigi Maccalli and there hasn't been any news about him either during all these months that he has been missing. It is certain that he was kidnapped though.

Church in Niger remembers kidnapped Italian missionary during Christmas season
In the build-up to Christmas, Christians in the African nation of Niger are thinking of Father Pier Luigi Maccalli, who was kidnapped on Sep. 17.

The Italian missionary was taken from Bomoanga parish, located about 75 miles from the capital, Niamey. It is suspected he may have been taken to the neighboring country of Burkina Faso.

According to a church spokesperson, about eight men arrived on motorbikes, broke into his house opposite the church and forced him to go with them. Church officials said he was targeted: Other protentional victims, including another priest and several nuns, were ignored.

 

[Elainera]

Little bit OT: The countries surrounding Burkina Faso are repeatedly mentioned as being dangerous. Mali, Niger, Togo .... but not the neighbouring Ghana. Why is that? I ask because a British friend of mine lives there with his wife and children.

 

[Vail]

If nothing happens, those who took the road trip will say beautiful trip! and they never felt unsafe, what they should be saying is that nothing happened and they probably would not have stood a chance if it had.

rsbm This whole post was such a great response, thank you.