Dundee West MP Jim McGovern has written to the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the ongoing captivity of former Dundee clergyman Father Jean-Pierre Ndulani.
Father Ndulani spent six years as a priest at the Wellburn Care Home, run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, before returning to his homeland in August 2012.
On October 12 that year Father Ndulani and two colleagues, Anselme Wasikundi and Edmond Bamutute, were kidnapped by an armed group from the Notre Dame des Pauvres Parish Church house in Mbau, North Kivu region.
It was revealed last year that a ransom had been paid to Father Ndulani’s captors. However, the three have not been released.
Mr McGovern has now written to Martin Kobler, UN special representative to the DRC and head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, as well as to British ambassador Diane Corner, both of whom are based in the DRC’s capital Kinshasa.
The MP has also written to Sir Mark Lyall Grant, Britain’s ambassador to the UN in New York.
Mr McGovern has asked for greater efforts to be made to discover the whereabouts and condition of Father Ndulani and his colleagues, and for better progress to be made in securing their release.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has previously informed him that there was little it could do to assist, although it would contact the UN in the country to ask for more information.
Mr McGovern said: “Father Ndulani and his colleagues have been missing now for over a year.
“Father Ndulani’s family and the many friends he made in Dundee over his six years here are desperate to know about his condition and to see him released, alongside Anselme Wasikundi and Edmond Bamutute.
“Greater efforts are long overdue and I sincerely hope the authorities take note and start acting without further delay.”