On 18 January extremist Muslim terrorists raided the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, leaving 29 people dead including US missionary, Michael James Riddering.
That same weekend an elderly Australian couple, Ken and Jocelyn Elliott, living in the North of the country were kidnapped by an Al-Qaeda linked terror group.
The Elliotts moved to Burkina Faso in 1972 to build a clinic in the small town of Djibo where Dr Ken Elliott worked as a surgeon performing up to 150 operations per month. Following their abduction there were regular protest marches by local people calling for the couple to be released.
