Doctor who was kidnapped in Nigeria forgives captors on his return home to Cambridgeshire

Dr David Donovan and his wife Shirley were held captive for 22 days while working in the Delta area.

They were running four health care clinics set up by their charity New Foundations when they were seized by militants on 13 October 2017.

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Unfortunately, their friend and Optician Ian Squire was shot dead, before the rest of the group were safely released.

Dr Donovan, 58, said the group had been due to leave their compound when the kidnappers struck.

Speaking at St Wendreda's Church, in March, Cambridgeshire, last Saturday, October 13 Dr Donovan and his wife Shirley said they were thankful for their "second chance".

He said the armed gang cut power to the compound before launching the kidnap attempt, which he called a "nightmare scenario".

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Dr Donovan, who used to work as a GP at the Riverside Practice in March, Cambridgeshire, said: "They took us by boat towards the Atlantic into quite a flooded area of the jungle.

"At that time of the year it is the rainy season so there isn't any land at all, so it is completely off the map."

The GP said they had learned to "forgive" their captors and held Bible classes with three of the captors.

He adds: "These are big lessons. They threatened to kill us three times.

"Initially [they were] very intimidating, extremely unpredictable due to drugs and alcohol, very adrenaline fuelled, extremely violent, extremely intimidatory.

"They were broken men, absolutely broken, and it is not my position to judge them."