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The former Bloemfontein teacher, Pierre Korkie, who was kidnapped by Al-Qaeda militants in Taiz, Yemen, last year has been killed.
Gift of the Givers founder, Imtiaz Sooliman, told our sister station OFM that Korkie was killed in the crossfire during a US military attempt to free an American hostage. He said the news was even more tragic as Al-Qaeda had agreed to release Korkie on Sunday. He said a team of Abyan leaders met on Saturday morning and were preparing the final security and logistical arrangements to bring Korkie to safety. Korkie and his wife Yolande were kidnapped by the militants in Taiz, Yemen, in May last year.
Yolande was released on January 10 and returned to South Africa on January 13.
The Gift of the Givers helped negotiate her release. The kidnappers however demanded a more than R30 million ransom in exchange for Korkie's safe return. Gift of the Givers had tried to make contact with Al-Qaeda through international media and circulated an interview with their office manager in Yemen, Anas al-Hamati. Al-Hamati was forced to leave Yemen at the end of January for his own safety after Al-Qaeda accused him of stealing the ransom money. Tribal leaders in Yemen then took over the talks with Al-Qaeda.
On February 25, tribal leaders found out that Korkie was still alive but in bad health. Since then no more information was available on his condition. Korkie was, however, spotted three times. At the time of the kidnapping, Korkie was a teacher in Yemen, while his wife did relief work in hospitals.
