By Tamara Audi in Los Angeles and Gbenga Akingbule in Abuja, Nigeria
Nigerian police are searching for an American missionary
kidnapped from a school compound in the central part of the
country.
Church officials said they received word Monday that Phyllis
Sortor, a reverend in the Free Methodist Church who has ties to the
Seattle area, was taken from Hope Academy in Nigeria, where she
served as a missionary for the church.
"We are calling on the U.S. church to join together in prayer
for Phyllis' safety and speedy release," said Bishop David Kendall
in a statement on the church's website.
Mr. Kendall said the U.S. Department of State and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation "are working with local authorities to find
and rescue her."
A spokeswoman for the FBI in Seattle had no comment.
A State Department official said the department is "aware of
media reports that a U.S. citizen was reported missing in
Nigeria."
"In cases where U.S. citizens are confirmed missing, the U.S.
embassy works closely with those involved, supporting local
authorities in their search efforts, and provide all appropriate
consular assistance," the official said.
It is unclear who may have abducted Ms. Sortor, who has worked
in the region since 2005, according to her Facebook page and a 2009
video interview posted online.
Nigeria's brutal Boko Haram insurgency is mainly confined to the
country's northeast. Nigeria's south has been troubled by militants
who have resorted to oil theft from sabotaged pipelines and
sporadic kidnapping and ransoms to raise money.
"We are aware of the incident. We have since commenced a search
for an abducted U.S. woman. We are hopeful we will get her rescued
from her abductors," said Emmanuel Ojukwu, Nigeria's police
spokesman.
The spokesman didn't identify the abductors.
The incident is the latest to highlight the increasing risks
faced by religious missionaries and aid workers around the globe,
but especially in Africa and the Middle East, where missionaries
and aid workers have died from the Ebola virus and in violent
conflicts.
American churches are wrestling with how to ensure the safety of
their workers while still carrying out their missions--in some
cases employing security services and insurance to quickly evacuate
workers.
According to Fides, the Vatican's missionary information
service, 26 pastoral care workers in the Catholic church were
killed in 2014, three more than in 2013. Between 2004 and 2013, 230
pastoral workers were killed, according to Fides.
Ms. Sortor worked as an administrator for Hope Academy in
Nigeria, teaching Bible school and supporting "women's literacy
projects," according to the Free Methodist Church mission
website.
The church, based in Indianapolis, has 53 missionaries around
the world, including 12 in Africa, according to its website. A
spokeswoman for the church said the church had no further comment
on Ms. Sortor or its missionary programs.
According to letters from church officials and Ms. Sortor's own
writings, she developed a special connection over the years to the
Fulani, a nomadic Muslim society.
In a letter posted online to church members, Ms. Sortor wrote
last month about the opening of a new school in Nigeria.
"We have worked long and hard on this school, and are so
thrilled that yesterday, January 19th, 2015, we were able to open
our doors for the first time!" Ms. Sortor wrote. "We began with 82
children, 58 of whom are Muslim, Fulani kids from one near-by camp!
...The Fulani parents are wonderfully cooperative--sending food and
water with their kids, organizing a Parent-Teacher
Association--giving us Fulani security guards for the school!"
The school staff "are wonderful Christian people who I know,
with God's help, will make this school great!"
Write to Tamara Audi at tammy.audi@wsj.com
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