Sr. Gilberte Bussière, a native of Asbestos, Que., was kidnapped along with Fr. Gianantonio Allegri and Fr. Giampaola Marta.
Bussière had lived in Cameroon since 1974. For the last 18 of those 40 years she has worked in the city of Maroua. It is a northern French-speaking region of the African nation where she was a teacher and school principal.
Bussière, 74, and the two Italian priests were kidnapped from the village Tchéré in an armed raid. The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram is suspected in the kidnappings.
The sisters and associates of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame in Montreal, the order to which Bussière belongs, are extending their prayerful support to the family and friends of the three kidnapping victims, but are currently not giving interviews to media.
Bussière was born on Sept. 12, 1939. She joined the Notre Dame sisters in 1957 and took the name Sr. Sainte-Marie-de-l’Assomption. For 20 years before leaving for Cameroon, she taught in Lac Mégantic and Athabaska, Que.
In 2013, Bussière returned to Canada for cancer treatment, but was eager to return to Cameroon. She was abducted just months later.
“Health permitting, I will joyfully return to assist our Cameroonian sisters and the school children of Tchéré. God alone knows what out future holds,” she said, according to a press release.
In Tchéré, she also did pastoral work and assisted in teachers’ formation. The village is located near the Nigerian border, a region currently under a Canadian travel advisory.
Boko Haram, a terrorist group that politically aligns itself with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, is known for targeting Westerners, sometimes for ransom, and conducting church bombings, among other atrocities. Boko Haram means “Western education is sinful.”
The kidnappings follow a similar incident where Fr. Georges Vandenbeusch of France was taken in a similar manner in November, only to be released the next month. And a French family was also abducted but released after a ransom was paid.
Cameroon’s armed forces have been conducting a large-scale security sweep on the area in search of Bussière and the priests.