Kidnapped Australian doctor Ken Elliott ‘made to train terrorists to be medics’

Now 85, former West Australian Ken Elliott was kidnapped from his clinic in Burkina Faso in January 2016 by a terrorist group.

Australian doctor Ken Elliott. Picture: Facebook

An Australian doctor kidnapped by al-Qa’ida-linked terrorists in West Africa four years ago has been tasked with training ­“foreign fighters” to be medics, according to reports from Bur­kina Faso.

Now 85, former West Australian Ken Elliott was kidnapped from his clinic in Burkina Faso in January 2016 by the terrorist group, which transported him to neighbouring Mali.

According to a report by Burkina Faso’s L’Evenement newspaper, Dr Elliott was being guarded by 20 armed men in Mali’s Mopti region.

He was reportedly kidnapped in order to “teach medicine” to terrorist fighters.

His wife, Jocelyn, was also ­abducted but released weeks later after al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Magh­reb said it would adhere to principles to not involve women in war.

Marking the fourth anniver­sary of the kidnappings, the ­Elliott family released a statement on a Facebook page on January 15 dedicated to the release of the medico, thanking those who had supported their bid to have their ­father released.

“On the fourth anniversary of the taking of Dr Elliott from Djibo, we would like, as a family, to thank those who have shown their support and sympathy for us by their contribution to this site,” the family said.

“We have ­appreciated these enormously.

“We are also conscious that during this time we are not the only ones who have suffered loss in one way or another. May God comfort all who mourn and give peace to this region.”

The family has previously urged the captors to keep in direct contact and expressed concerns about Dr Elliott’s health.

Mrs Elliott released a video through the Facebook page in June asking for her husband’s ­release. “To those who hold my husband, Dr Kenneth Elliott, may peace be with you and your families,” she said.

“I've been realising for some time now that you control my husband’s future and our last years together. You have the power to show kindness and free my husband, to do good for you, your family and for my family.”

In 2018, David Elliott — one of the couple’s three adult children — released a video in which he says in French: “I put to you this question: Doesn’t he deserve your generosity?”

Comment was sought from the family on Tuesday.

Since moving to Djibo, near the border with Mali, in 1972, the couple built a hospital and performed countless procedures on people from across the region. They had been searching for someone to take over their hospital for the past 15 years but had found it difficult to get anyone willing to commit to the workload without a salary.