Will Al-Qaeda release Pierre Korkie, or is he already dead?

Pierre Korkie and his wife were kidnapped in Yemen, probably around around May 2013.

His wife was released, but Pierre has been kept until now.

Last Saturday was the deadline of a ransom of what amounts to over R30 million, which was impossible to pay.
We're all waiting for news.

A Muslim organization known as the Gift of the Givers established contact with the kidnappers, and they tried to explain that South Africans simply cannot raise that amount of money.
I don't think they understand at all how poor many South Africans are, and that white people have lived in SA since almost 400 years.
They first thought the Korkie couple were Americans.

There's not much news.
It's strongly suspected however that they did not kill him, since South Africa never had an issue with another (let alone a Muslim) country.

I'm not sure it has been confirmed however.

There have been big inter-faith prayer services to bring Korkie home across South Africa.

Please Al-Qaeda, let this man live and set him him free!

www.iol.co.za...

No word until now on the fate of Pierre Korkie: www.iol.co.za...

Pierre's wife, Yolande Korkie, makes a final appeal to the Al-Qaeda kidnappers in Yemen.

She was released just over a month ago, and they had both worked in Yemen as teachers.

Interfaith prayers across South Africa for Pierre Korkie since Saturday:

Prayers for Korkie:

I just watched our main SA news, and there's still no contact or new information from the terrorists in Yemen.
It seems that not even journalists want to go there to check.

I'll be watching every day.

What a terrible and anxious time it must be for his wife and family.

Reports that Pierre Korkie had been killed on Friday were confirmed on 8 December 2014.

Apparently Korkie and other hostages were caught in a cross-fire between Islamists and US troops (who seemingly came to rescue one of their own, and they were unaware of Korkie).

Not much is totally clarified, but it has been claimed that Korkie was supposed to have been released today after lengthy negotiations.
However, that claim had been made several times, only for the kidnappers to backtrack at the last moment.
It might have been likely though.

My heart goes out to his family.

www.bbc.com...

Will Al-Qaeda release Pierre Korkie

Maybe after the US release everyone from Gitmo who have never been charges or after Isreal releases all its Muslim prisoners who did little more than throwing rocks at the IDF each time they rode into town.

We will just have to call it colateral damage like the US state department calls it all the time.

Well, I don't want to bash either side, and as a South African Mr. Korkie went to Yemen with his family to do humanitarian work, but it's very sad to read:

US special forces who tried to rescue photojournalist Luke Somers from al-Qaeda in Yemen were not aware of the identity of the other hostage held with him, a US official has told the BBC. Both South African teacher Pierre Korkie and Mr Somers were shot by the militants during the raid, US officials say, and died as a result. A charity working with Mr Korkie said he was to have been freed on Sunday. Its project director said the US rescue attempt had "destroyed everything".

www.bbc.com...

Obama sends condolences to Korkie's family, claiming that the US had to act in order to save the American photographer Luke Somers.

Nobody is dishing out blame, and locally it is viewed as a tragedy.
Except perhaps the the Islamic charity (the Gift of the Givers), and their claims of Korkie's imminent freedom.
One can wonder about their agenda, and whether they are just another Muslim Brotherhood organization with a friendly face who are now making insinuations (the US raid ruined his release) after apparently achieving very little over a long time.
However that's speculation.
The ultimate lesson would be to stay away from such countries and war-zones.

mg.co.za...