Posted by Sister Narvaez is greeted by hugs after being held by jihadists for nearly five years
Colombian nun returns home after kidnap ordeal in Mali – UCA News
Nun Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, who was kidnapped in February 2017 by Mali jihadists, is escorted by Colombian police on her arrival at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota on Nov. 16. (Photo: AFP)
A Colombian nun who was kidnapped and held by jihadists in Mali for nearly five years has returned to her home country.
“Welcome, welcome, our heart welcomes you,” sang a dozen nuns waiting for her at the airport in Bogota on Nov. 16 while Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez hugged each one of them.
The 59-year-old nun was taken hostage on Feb. 7, 2017, in southern Mali near the border with Burkina Faso, where she had been working as a missionary.Donate to UCA News with a small contribution of your choice
“The Lord gave me the joy of having brothers and sisters,” said the nun, who was freed on Oct. 9. “I thank you with all my heart.”
“Your strength amazes me,” said Colonel Gustavo Camargo, deputy director of the anti-kidnapping police who had gone to Mali to press for her release.
Returning to her homeland, which was itself plagued by kidnappings in a conflict that lasted more than half a century, Narvaez spoke out for victims of abduction.
“I was thinking of all the suffering that people go through when they are kidnapped right here in Colombia, in the whole world, there in Mali, how many people are left,” said the nun, whose mother died in September 2020 while awaiting the release of her daughter.
Kidnappings are common in Mali, mired in unrest of its own, and especially in the center of the country, a hotbed of jihadist violence.
Since March 2012, several areas have been in the hands of groups linked to al-Qaeda.
Before returning to Colombia, the nun visited Pope Francis at the Vatican.