For just over four years, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoty from Colombia has been held in captivity by an Islamist group in Mali. The Colombian religious sister had been in mission in Mali educating local women and carrying for orphaned children. Recently a French doctor held in captivity with Sister Gloria Cecilia was released and reports that the Colombian sister is still alive but is not in good health.

By ACN Staff

(Update: On 8 October 2021, it was announced that Sister Gloria was released.)

On 7th February 2017, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoty was kidnapped by an Al-Qaeda affiliated Islamist group called the Support Front for Islam and Muslims (SGIM). The Colombian religious sister is a member of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate and had been on mission for 12 years in Africa, specifically Benin and Mali. At the time of her kidnapping, Sister Gloria Cecilia had been helping to run a mission in Karangasso, Mali.

Sister Rosa Julia Ibarra, from the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, spoke to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in Sister Gloria Cecilia’s homeland of Colombia. Sister Rosa Julia said on behalf of the Congregation:

“it has been a very difficult time; to think that we have a kidnapped member, knowing that Gloria Cecilia is a woman of great commitment to the Church and to the cause of the poor.”

Sister Rosa Julia spoke of Sister Gloria Cecilia’s mission in Mali. Sister Gloria Cecilia had:

“established a literacy and women's promotion project there, in which about 500 women, both Christian and Muslim, participated”.

She had also helped care for around 30 orphaned children and regularly visited the sick.

Sister Rosa Julia detailed the pain felt by the Colombian-based Community at the kidnapping of one of their sisters:

“To have a Christian, a Catholic, going through a kidnapping for her faith is a wound for the Church, and these wounds of the Church should hurt us as baptised. I believe we must raise our voice for the freedom of Gloria Cecilia.”

The outside work has heard little from Sister Gloria Cecilia’s kidnappers. In September 2018, they released a video of the Colombian sister, as proof that she was still alive. Nothing about the whereabouts of Sister Gloria Cecilia was heard of for two years after this, until October 2020, when Dr. Sophie Pétronin, a French doctor being held alongside Sister Gloria Cecilia, was released. Dr. Pétronin reported that Sister Gloria Cecilia was still alive. This has given hope that Sister Gloria Cecilia will also be released alive and well. Dr. Pétronin has pleaded for something to be done for Sister Gloria Cecilia. The two women were held together in captivity, the French doctor has said the Colombian sister is not well. The constant moving from one Islamist desert camp to another would be physically exhausting in the best of condition but must be unbearable when combined with being held hostage. ACN asks all our supporters to keep Sister Gloria Cecilia in their prayers, that she may soon be released unharmed and that her kidnappers may see the error of their ways.