Silence around kidnapped American missionary pilot in Niger is disturbing, Catholic priest says

A month after the abduction of American pilot Kevin Rideout in Niger’s capital, Niamey, church and missionary sources in the West African country say the silence surrounding his disappearance is disturbing.

Three unidentified men abducted the 50-year-old missionary pilot Oct. 21 from his home in a secure neighborhood — a short distance from the presidential palace in Niamey.

Since then, no group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping or demanded ransom, and information regarding his location has remained scant.

“(This) leaves a feeling of apprehension, fear and uncertainty,” Father Augustine Anwuchie, a Nigerian Fidei Donum priest serving as a missionary in the Diocese of Maradi in Niger, told OSV News.

In past kidnappings, according to the priest, the kidnappers usually established contact and issued clear demands regarding the hostage.

“This case seems to be taking longer, and no one knows the culprits nor the whereabouts of the victim,” he said.

Rideout worked for Serving in Mission, or SIM, which is a U.S.-based, global, interdenominational Christian organization that operates in regions where Christianity is least known. Reports suggest that members of Islamic State Sahel Province or criminals linked to the terrorist group kidnapped the missionary. He had lived in Niger with his family since 2010.

“Until now, we haven’t heard the news of the kidnapped pilot. We only heard he was kidnapped. … We don’t know the name of the group that kidnapped him yet,” said a source working for SIM in Niger, who cannot be named.

Rideout lives in Niger with his wife, Krista, and four children, and along with his brother Ian, until the kidnapping, he worked as a pilot for SIM, flying missionary personnel and equipment within Niger and across West Africa.

As the two brothers flew to missions, Krista was at home caring for the children. She also played a role in welcoming new missionaries, taught elementary music and cared for orphanage boys.

Niger is predominantly Muslim. The tiny Christian population, which includes Catholics and Protestants, accounts for less than 2% of about 30 million people.

The landlocked country is entirely located in the Sahel, a semi-arid belt that stretches across Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. It neighbors Nigeria to the south, Chad to the east, and Libya and Algeria to the north.

Alongside Burkina Faso and Mali, its neighbors to the southwest, Niger faces an explosive humanitarian and security crisis, in the form of intercommunal violence and caused by the entrenched terrorist groups, affiliated with the al-Qaida global terror network and the Islamic State group.

In 2022, the different groups carried out 180 attacks in Niger.

A coup on July 26, 2023, that brought Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the presidential guard, into power, threw the country into further turmoil.

But as Niger and its neighbors battle insurgencies, the rising kidnapping of foreign nationals and local Christians has left a feeling that the Sahel is “an endangered place for missionaries,” according to Father Anwuchie.

In Niger, Philip Walton, an American missionary kidnapped in October 2020, was rescued by U.S. Special Forces a few days later. Jeffery Woodke, another American missionary, was kidnapped in 2016 and released in 2023, after six years of captivity. Italian missionary Father Pier Luigi Maccalli was abducted in October 2018 and held for two years.

Eva Gretzmacher, an Austrian citizen, and Claudia Abbt, a Swiss citizen, were kidnapped in Niger in October. Neither has been released.

Father Anwuchie said that some priests and lay missionaries “were liberated by the negotiation of the local church, the intervention of some of their country’s embassies and church international partners.”

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