Missions, The Persecuted Church Across the World

Swiss hostage killed by Islamist extremists in Mali – October 14th 2020

World Watch Monitor, October 6, 2020

A Swiss missionary – kidnapped from Timbuktu in northern Mali in January 2016 – was killed only weeks before other hostages were freed by Islamist extremists, in an apparent prisoner-hostage swap negotiated by the new transitional government in Mali.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry expressed its sorrow that Beatrice Stockli, a single woman in her late forties, was “apparently killed by kidnappers of the Islamist terrorist organization Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslim (JNIM) about a month ago”.

The Swiss authorities say they will do all they can to find out details of exactly how she died, and to return her body, or her remains, to her family.

The missionary settled in Timbuktu in 2000, working for a Swiss church, before starting work alone, unaffiliated with any church.

She had led an austere life in a popular district of Timbuktu – but known to be frequented by armed jihadist groups – and used to sell flowers and hand out Christian material.

She was taken from her home before dawn on 8 Jan. 2016 by armed men in four pickup trucks, according to confidential sources.