Marianite sister freed after five months of captivity in Burkina Faso

Marianite Sr. Suellen Tennyson, who was kidnapped from the convent of her educational and medical mission in Yalgo, Burkina Faso, in early April, has been found alive and is safe after nearly five months of captivity, a congregational leader of the Marianites said Aug. 30.

"She is safe," Marianite Sr. Ann Lacour said. "She is on American soil, but not in America. She is safe." She said Tennyson was recovered Aug. 29, and the sisters in the congregation have spoken to her.

"She eventually will get back to the United States," Lacour added.

The congregation said Tennyson, the former international congregational leader for the Marianites of Holy Cross and native of New Orleans, was sleeping when the men burst into the convent, ransacked the living quarters and kidnapped her, leaving behind two other Marianite sisters and two young women who also lived in the convent.

"There were about 10 men who came during the night while the sisters were sleeping," Lacour said in an e-bulletin April 6. "They destroyed almost everything in the house, shot holes in the new truck and tried to burn it. The house itself is OK, but its contents are ruined."

The other two Marianites at the convent in Yalgo — Sr. Pauline Drouin, a Canadian, and Sr. Pascaline Tougma, a Burkinabé — were not abducted and did not see many of the details.

(...) Lacour, who has visited the Marianites in the country, said Tennyson was serving as a pastoral minister, "to wipe tears, give hugs, import a smile. She really did support the people that work in the clinic that the parish runs," adding that people walked for miles to get help from the clinic."

According to media reports, Burkina Faso, one of the 10 countries in the Sahel region of Africa, has been facing rampant violence occasioned by political crises, which gives a fertile ground for the proliferation of extremist groups."