Former Aid Worker Flavia Wagner Sues Samaritan's Purse After Being Kidnapped In Darfur

Flavia Wagner, a former aid worker who was abducted and held captive for 105 days in Darfur in 2010, is suing the charity organization who sent her to the dangerous region.

Wagner has brought formal charges against the U.S. evangelical charity Samaritan's Purse for allegedly ignoring warnings that the Abu Ajura area was unsafe for aid workers, Reuters reports.

Wagner was part of an education team conducting assessments in the embattled region of Sudan before she and her driver were taken hostage by armed bandits. The driver was released within days.

The New York Post reports the lawsuit also accuses Samaritan's Purse leader Franklin Graham of refusing to use an insurance policy to pay the ransom to free Wagner from her captors.

According to the New York Post, the lawsuit seeks damages for Wagner's personal suffering during her 105-day captivity.

Wagner was held captive outdoors by more than 20 Arabic-speaking men who repeatedly subjected her to "shocking abuse" that included mock executions and threats that she would be gang-raped and tortured before being put to death.

According to Reuters, both Samaritan's Purse and Clayton Consultants, the firm hired by the charity to communicate with the abductors, have both refused to comment on the allegations.

Comments

[Helen In Canada]

08:52 AM on 05/29/2011

WOW! The sentence: "Cuba is one of the safest countries in the world" was CENSORED? UNREAL!

[jcinco]

05:32 PM on 05/25/2011

Good, I hope franklin graham is dragged through the mud on this. he's nothing more than an exploiter lining his pockets off the misery of the less fortunate. he and paylin exploiting the people in Haiti for a phot-op was beyond shameful. he should be exposed for what he is.

[LilacFields]

04:30 AM on 05/26/2011

These evangelical nutjobs such as samaritans purse and the vast, but secretive, ywam (look it up) masquerading as humanitarian organisations really are utterly despicable. Undoubtedly, they attract many unwitting young people who genuinely wish to make a difference. It isn't clear from this article, however, whether she is aware of their goals or not.

[taxi648]

12:10 AM on 05/26/2011

Since you felt a need to respond in such a negative way I know you were born and have a mother. I think you should show her your comment and see what she would say. To use God and adult entertainment in the same sentence is just wrong.

[joeyc]

03:31 AM on 05/26/2011

Oh, get off your high-horse. I don't live under my mother's skirt, and your horse--I think he needs a drink.

[ReMarker]

01:47 PM on 05/25/2011

It is irresponsible and dishonorable to take advantage of inexperienced, well intended people to the degree their life and/or physical well being is threatened.

I know that makes me different from an 'average' person, however it doesn't make me different from a 'normal' person.

I say sue for an amount big enough to stop Samaritan's Purse from munipulating any more inexperienced, well intended people to make decisions that put their lives at risk.

[icemonkey]

02:04 PM on 05/25/2011

Anyone who in 2010 didn't know how dangerous darfur is must have been living on another planet....

[DaMojo]

10:05 AM on 05/26/2011

I would have to agree with you. It's awful what happened to her. Many well intended people go overseas without informing themselves of the dangers.

[LilacFields]

04:38 AM on 05/26/2011

While I agree with you that it is "irresponsi­ble and dishonorab­le to take advantage of inexperien­ced, well intended people" -- I do think that a little research might have alerted her to the possibility that she could be put in danger. Some courageous people are actually willing to take that risk knowingly. What I find far more disturbing about such organisations is that they recruit well-intended young people who may genuinely believe they are doing something to alleviate poverty and suffering, when in fact they are merely being used as pawns in a bid to evangelise/proselytise across the globe

[AllieGoogle]

01:08 PM on 05/25/2011

There is no report that the insurance policy was FOR ransoming kidnapped workers

[MarsAmbassador]

01:07 PM on 05/25/2011

Well, in my opinion anyone VOLUNTARILY going to Sudan knows the risks. On top of that she had been abducted before, so it's not like she was clueless about what the job entailed. My take on this is that she DID know the risks, however she's punishing Samaritan's Purse for leaving her as a hostage when they could have used the insurance policy to pay the ransom. I think she's getting back at them for leaving her in that situation much longer than they maybe should have. Who knows.

[IrishInsurgent]

12:51 PM on 05/25/2011

Anyone whether they are journalists/aid workers/ activists who go to warzones to try make things better for the local populations are heroes and great people. Part of that though is that they know the risks and go anyway.

I have never heard of someone turning around and suing the charity or NGO that sent them in. If you agree to go into a war zone like Sudan you accept the risks and face them. Part of what makes the work so noble.

Makes me wonder did this activist research the place she was going at all. Two years ago a UN compound was attacked and loads of African peacekeepers were killed. If the UN cannot even guarantee its safety why should you assume some small NGO would. Sudan is the site of the worst Genocide since the holocaust it is a dangerous place with alot of different factions most of them equally bad.

[Kenji]

12:18 PM on 05/25/2011

Generalize much?

[snippylee]

12:06 PM on 05/25/2011

What a challenging experience.

[GraniteSkyline]

11:51 AM on 05/25/2011

Good for her!

Samaritan's purse is a HUGE SC@M!

Several years ago it was revealed that their officers got huge salaries but they paid out very little to the needy.

They claim they retooled their operation, but all they did was form a fake accounting panel with another Evangelical sc@m charity to rubber stamp themselves and keep the scam going!

http://pursestrings.ca/editors.htm

http://www.cephas-library.com/complaints/complaints_evangelical_council_of_financial_accountability_con_artists.html

[who38]

11:38 AM on 05/25/2011

So, charity does not begin at home.

[Grandma Koolfinger]

11:37 AM on 05/25/2011

"Hey, Mom, Dad. I've got my education degree now,"
"That's great, honey! Super! Did you get a job?"
"Yeah, I did. I'll be working for a respected charity, Samaritan's Purse"
"Wonderful. Where will you be working?"
"Darfur. Isn't that really cool?"
"Darfur. Sweetie, isn't that a dangerous place?"
"No, Mom. I'll be just fine. It's in Connecticut. I think."

[grimcity]

12:08 PM on 05/25/2011

THIS

[Jessica Cox]

11:07 AM on 05/25/2011

All people who volunteer in the Sudan highly educated and know the dangers.. She was abducted once before and she still chose to return. It is hard decsion to make because you want to help these people overseas but in many ways the price is getting to be very high. And I personally wouldn't advise going with such a blatanly Christian organisation to a Muslim country.

[who38]

11:41 AM on 05/25/2011

IMO, one of the greatest errors of Christianity is its compulsion  to proselytize.  I think it was blow-back from seeing the exclusivity of Judaism, its dwindling in numbers and the need to always bring new lambs into the fold.

[ladycon]

12:03 PM on 05/25/2011

The problem is prosletizing. I've been in Ecuador for a while now and they come to my door every week. They're all here--Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and evangelical Christians. They have no concept of how insulting they are coming to people who already have a set of beliefs, but here they are--knock knock, my beliefs are better than yours.

[PhunkeyPhish]

11:05 AM on 05/25/2011

What did she expect? It's Darfur! My brother has been working on the Darfur issue for many years now with several different organizations, including the US gov't. He's been to Darfur several times and we all understand the risks involved. One of his trips got delayed by a week... the camp he was going to be staying adjacent to was ransacked with many kidnapped and killed during that week. You don't go to places of war/genocide without keeping these possibilities in the back of your mind.

[who38]

11:42 AM on 05/25/2011

Isn't she suing because the  agency didn't use its insurance to buy her ransom?

[AllieGoogle]

12:53 PM on 05/25/2011

She's suing for multiple reasons - and if you pay kidnappers - they keep kidnapping because it's profitable - ie Somali pirates and Columbians

[Nighthawk1982]

11:04 AM on 05/25/2011

She deserves to be compensated.

[ARMANDO DE LA ROSA]

11:21 AM on 05/25/2011

For what and by whom? If I said I am going to post you in Darfur what would your response be?

[who38]

11:43 AM on 05/25/2011

Depends upon the kind of guarantees for my safety that you give me.

[KIVPossum]

11:56 AM on 05/25/2011

Why? Did they kidnap her and force her to go there?