An Australian doctor in his 80’s who spent years as a hostage in the Sahara Desert has told a harrowing story of survival. Dr Ken Elliott and his wife Jocelyn were running a west African hospital, when they were abducted by Islamist militants linked to Al Qaeda. Jocelyn Elliot was released soon after, but her husband was kept in captivity for more than seven years.
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00:00Ken Elliott had been operating in his hospital for more than 40 years when, in January 2016,
00:08four men armed with Kalashnikovs knocked on the door of his modest home.
00:12They were all crouched right down, and I thought they looked pretty scared. But they were in
00:20by that time.
00:21They just came straight through the door?
00:23Yeah, pulled us out. We didn't have any option but to go along with them.
00:30Their kidnappers were Islamist militants who owe their allegiance to Al-Qaeda. A year after
00:34he was captured, Al-Qaeda released a video to prove Ken Elliott was still alive and valuable.
00:41It would be another six years before Dr Elliott would be reunited with his wife in Perth.
00:47He was kept in crude shelters in the desert with little food and no nutrients. He became
00:53seriously ill with scurvy.
00:55I got that I couldn't walk. I couldn't even crawl.
00:58How long did this go on for, that you couldn't walk?
01:01Oh, quite a long time. I think quite many months.
01:06He survived more than 20 scorpion bites.
01:09Most of them I had on the hand, inevitably. And when you get a scorpion sting, it just
01:16gets worse and worse, and it goes up your arm, into your shoulder.
01:20Ken Elliott was released last year. The Elliotts have been assured by the Australian government
01:25that no ransom was paid. Many experts are sceptical, but to the Elliotts, it's simple.
01:31We believe that the only reason why we were released was because there were a few hundred,
01:36if not thousands, of people praying for us. And we believe in prayer.
01:42Dr Elliott's survival certainly demonstrates the power of belief.