A Christian missionary held captive by Al-Qaeda for over four years has said God was with him the whole time.

Dr Ken Elliott and his wife Jocelyn were both kidnapped in Burkina Faso, after serving as medical missionaries for 44 years. Ken was 82 at the time of his kidnapping.

The Elliots treated everyone who came to their clinic regardless of religion, earning them the respect of the majority-Muslim locals. When they were kidnapped, both Christians and Muslims from the community were outraged.

After a few weeks in Islamist terrorist captivity, Jocelyn was released. Ken was left to bond with a fellow captive, Romanian Julian Ghergut.

Ken told ABC News: "When I met him, he had been a captive for nine months. 'How can anyone stand this for nine months?' I asked myself. I ended up being there for seven years and four months."

Conditions in captivity were bleak, and Ken had no access to proper nutrients or medical care. His legs swelled up, leaving him in constant pain and unable to walk.

He told the Keswick Convention: “I had seen only one case of scurvy in my medical career, and that was me.”

His captors also insisted he convert to Islam, but Ken persisted in his Christian faith.

“The Lord has been good to me,” he said, “there's no way I was going to dishonour Him by converting to Islam, or even pretending to convert."

When asked if his years alone, bitten my scorpions in the sand, and unable to leave a dirty shelter which was hot in the day and cold at night made him doubt God he said:

“Never. No. He was always there.”

The circumstances leading to Ken’s release in 2023 are unclear, but he told ABC News that he is certain of how it came to be:

“The only reason why we were released is because there were a few hundred, if not thousands of people praying for it. And we believe in prayer.”