5 Months After Her Kidnapping, an American Is Found Alive

An American nun kidnapped in west Africa by a group of armed men in April has been found alive. Sister Suellen Tennyson, a Roman Catholic nun, was abducted from her bed at a mission site in Burkina Faso, NOLA.com reports. Not many details about her "recovery," which took place Monday morning, have been released, but the 83-year-old is in US hands in the capital of Niger and will "eventually" return to the US, says the US congregational leader for her order, Sister Ann Lacour. The US Embassy and State Department, and various other agencies and organizations, had been involved in working to find her.

"She’s totally worn out," Lacour tells the Clarion Herald, the archdiocese's newspaper. "I told her how much people love her, and she doesn’t have anything to worry about. I told her, ‘You are alive and safe. That’s all that matters.'" When the kidnapping took place, Lacour said, "There were about 10 men who came during the night while the sisters were sleeping. They destroyed almost everything in the house, shot holes in the new truck, and tried to burn it. The house itself is OK, but its contents are ruined." Two other sisters and two younger women living at the convent were left there, but Tennyson was taken with "no glasses, shoes, phone, medicine, etc.," Lacour said, including her blood pressure medication. (More Africa stories.)