A U.S. missionary was abducted by armed men during a sermon at his church in South Africa, according to police and a fellow pastor.
Josh Sullivan, an American pastor, was taken on Thursday evening while preaching at Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, a township near the coastal city of Gqeberha.
Authorities suspect the incident may have been a kidnapping-for-ransom case.
South Africa has seen a rise in such abductions in recent years, with criminal groups often targeting individuals believed to be valuable ransom prospects.
Police said in a statement that four masked and armed men entered the church during the service.
“They stole two mobile phones and abducted a 45-year-old male pastor before fleeing the scene,” the statement read.
Reverend Jeremy Hall, a local pastor familiar with the situation, told AFP that the motive behind the abduction appeared to be financial.
He said Sullivan was conducting a prayer session attended by around 30 congregants, including his wife and six children, when the attackers stormed in.
“They called him by name,” Hall explained. The assailants allegedly held Sullivan at gunpoint, forced him into his vehicle, and drove off. The car was later found abandoned roughly 1.5 kilometers from the church.
Sullivan and his family relocated to South Africa from Tennessee in November 2018, according to information on his personal website.
The same police anti-gang unit involved in the case also reported the kidnapping of a Chinese national earlier in the week in the same city, which lies along the Indian Ocean and is located about 920 kilometers southeast of Johannesburg.
According to police statistics, South Africa recorded over 17,000 kidnappings during the 2023/2024 fiscal year—an 11% increase compared to the previous year.