3 Suspects Killed As Police Rescue Kidnapped US Missionary In South Africa

United States missionary Josh Sullivan, who was abducted from his church last week has been rescued by the police after a shoot-out in which three suspects were killed, South African police said Wednesday.

LEADERSHIP recalls that 45-year-old Sullivan was taken at gunpoint last Thursday while delivering a sermon at the Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell outside the coastal city of Gqeberha.

South African police announced on Wednesday that police officers, while acting on a tip-off had approached a house in the KwaMagxaki District of Gqeberha the previous day.

The suspects tried to flee in a vehicle as they approached, opening fire on officers, said the police statement.

In the ensuing shoot-out, the three suspects were fatally wounded, and Sullivan was rescued, “miraculously unharmed”, from the exact vehicle, the statement added.

According to his website, Sullivan arrived in South Africa with his family from Tennessee in November 2018.
There were more than 17,000 kidnappings in South Africa in the 2023/2024 financial year, an 11 per cent increase over the previous year, according to police statistics.