photo Courtesy WNDU
HESSTON, Kan. (AP) — The father of an American United Nations worker who was among six people kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo says his son has been doing humanitarian work and has had some success in persuading militia leaders to give up child soldiers.
John Sharp, who lives with his wife in Hesston, told The Wichita Eagle that his 34-year-old son, Michael Sharp, is committed to finding nonviolent ways to end conflict.
A Congo government spokesman said Monday that Michael Sharp and another U.N. worker, Zahida Katalan, of Sweden, were abducted along with three Congolese drivers and a translator while traveling through the Kasai Central province.
John Sharp says his son, who was raised in Indiana and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when not abroad, is resourceful and capable of finding a way out of his predicament.
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KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s government says two United Nations officials, one American and one Swedish, have been kidnapped along with four Congolese in Kasai Central province.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende said Monday that Michael Sharp of the United States and Zahida Katalan of Sweden were taken with three Congolese drivers and a translator while traveling by motorcycle.
Michael Sharp is the son of Hesston College Bible faculty members John and Michele Sharp, according to the school’s social media page.
A government statement says the kidnappers have not yet been identified. It was not clear when the kidnapping occurred on a bridge near the village of Ngombe.
Judicial authorities in the province have opened an investigation and are working with the U.N. mission in Congo to free those held.
This vast Central African nation is home to multiple militias competing for stakes in its rich mineral resources.