Missionaries of the World

Armed men kidnapped an American missionary from a school in Nigeria and have demanded the equivalent of almost $300,000 for her safe return, Nigerian police said. The Rev. Phyllis Sortor, a missionary with the Free Methodist Church in Seattle, was identified by her church as the United State citizen abducted from the Hope Academy compound in Kogi state.

Serious death threats to human rights defenders, many of them church leaders, have been made by a paramilitary group in Colombia. The World Council of Churches (WCC), among other international organizations has called on Colombian Government to protect their lives.