Johannesburg - The mother of a South African national who has been held hostage in Mali since 2011 has died without being reunited with her son.
According to Gift of the Givers spokesperson Imtiaz Sooliman, Beverly McGown, mother of Stephen McGown, passed away on Saturday night after being unwell for several years.
However, over the last few months, her condition had deteriorated and worsened.
“Her anxiety over Stephen’s fate and her longing to see her son finally took its toll.
“On Thursday, May 25, Stephen was in captivity for exactly five years and six months,” he said.
Sooliman described how they had seen the sadness in the mother’s eyes and “watched how she patiently waited in dignified pain for the return of her son”.
“We failed her, my heart bleeds for her,” he added.
McGown and Swedish national Johan Gustafsson have been held by al-Qaeda in Mali since their abduction in November 2011.
The Gift of the Givers appointed a hostage negotiator and sent him to Mali in July 2015. “We tried everything humanly possible to get McGown home but we have not yet succeeded.
“We hope and pray that by some miracle we will get him out. We haven’t given up hope, and are still trying against all odds and will continue relentlessly,” Sooliman said.
Gift of the Givers teams and families extended their heartfelt condolences to the McGown family.
Meanwhile, Yolande Korkie, who was kidnapped in Yemen and later released, also sent a message of condolence and support to the McGown family.
Korkie and her husband Pierre were kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen in 2013.
Despite efforts to negotiate their release, Pierre and US photographer Luke Somers were killed during an attempt to free them by US Special Forces.
Following the marking of 2 000 days in captivity, the McGown and Gustafsson families are making an impassioned appeal to the king of Qatar for his intervention.
Sooliman explained that, so far, the king had been successful in negotiating the release of many hostages at the behest of diverse governments.
“The two families are hoping that a similar intervention on their behalf, on compassionate grounds, would be entertained; to wait 2 000 days with no solution in sight is devastating, to say the least.
“In the event we are not successful in this endeavour, and the captors still refuse an unconditional release, then the stark and unfortunate reality is that these two innocent family members are never coming home,” he said.
Gift of the Givers are calling on any government, organisation, individual or person with influence to assist in securing the release of the two hostages in whatever capacity “whether it means talking to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the king of Qatar or whatever”.
“It’s painful to witness the desperation and prolonged suffering of these two families.
“We are making an earnest request to the king of Qatar to give these two families an audience, and determine whether he can assist in this case,” Sooliman added.
Gift of the Givers are calling on the rest of society for fervent prayer so that there can be a successful outcome to this most “heartbreaking and gruelling journey”.
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