The wife of an Australian surgeon held hostage by militants in the West African nation of Burkina Faso has made a rare public call for help in a Facebook video.
It's been two years since surgeon Ken Elliott was kidnapped by Al-Qaeda-linked militants, and his wife Jocelyn fears her elderly husband may not have long to live.
“My husband is now very old,” Mrs Elliott says in a new video, according to a translation.
"I know he does not have much longer to live on this earth."
Mrs Elliott expresses her hopes he will be freed.
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The Department of Foreign Affairs says it’s still working on the case.
“Dr Elliott’s case remains a high priority for the Australian government and we continue to work with the family and with others to secure his release,” a spokeperson told SBS News.
Earlier this year, locals in the town of Djibo where Dr Elliott and his wife ran a medical clinic for over forty years, staged a rally to mark the second anniversary of his kidnapping.
They called on the government of Burkina Faso to do more, saying it should be more active in finding him and securing his release.
The couple in their 80s were kidnapped in 2016. Mrs Elliott was eventually freed, but her husband's whereabouts are still unknown.
Dr Elliott was last seen in a proof of life video issued by his kidnappers almost a year ago.
The clip also featuring a number of other Western hostages abducted in the region.
The Australian government has a firm policy against paying ransoms for citizens abducted overseas.
Meanwhile, locals in Djibo fear the clinic the Elliotts had run is also at risk of permanent closure.
Protesters claimed the government had failed to keep its pledge to keep the clinic open, according to the World Watch Monitor.
