U.S. missionary snatched in Nigeria

Masked gunmen kidnapped an American missionary in central Nigeria on Monday and are demanding $300,000 for her release.

The Rev. Phyllis Sortor, a missionary with Free Methodist Church in Seattle, was working as a financial administrator for Hope Academy in Kogi state. On Monday morning, five gunmen vaulted over the school’s wall and took Sortor, later calling a friend to issue the ransom demand.

Although the militant group Boko Haram has used kidnappings as part of its terror campaign in the northern part of Nigeria, local officials believe Sortor’s kidnappers belong to a criminal gang. She seems to have been the target of the attack, since no one else was hurt or taken.

Kogi Police Commissioner Adeyemi Ogunjemilusi told NBC News his officers are scouring the woods around the school compound for any signs of Sortor.

“We will do all within the available resources to ensure the safe rescue of the victim,” he said.

Leaders at Free Methodist Church are calling on all Christians to unite in prayer for Sortor’s quick release. The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria and the FBI have been notified of the case.

Sortor, now a grandmother, is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University, a Christian college, and has worked in Africa for many years. The school she now helps run is for ethnic Fulani children, who belong to a predominantly Muslim group of semi-nomadic herders. She also has helped to bring wells and clean water to the community where she lives.

“She’s a very courageous woman,” said Brenda Young, director of the Ohio-based Clear Blue Global Water Project. “She’s one of the most devoted, compassionate, hard-driving women I’ve ever known.”

Sortor’s husband of 28 years, Jim Sortor, died in Nigeria in 2008. The couple served together in Mozambique, Rwanda, and Nigeria.