In the north of the African nation Burkina Faso, Perth man Ken Elliott is known as "the doctor of poor people".
And the community of Djibo - where the 80-year-old Dr Elliott is the only surgeon for two million people in the area - want its doctor back home safely. 
The impact that Dr Elliott and his wife, Jocelyn, have had on Djibo is difficult to say in a few words, friend of the couple Dicko Seydou said. Mr Seydou is one of the administrators of the Facebook page 'Djibo supports Dr. Ken Elliott' created after the couple were taken by al-Qaeda-linked extremists on Saturday morning.
"People are very, very upset and disappointed and very shocked because Elliott for us is not someone from Australia or someone from a western country," he said. "Elliott is a part of our community."
At 4am on Saturday the couple, from Perth, were dragged from their beds and taken towards the border with Mali, Agence France-Presse reported.
Mr Seydou feared the couple were an easy target because they are "lovable" people and their "doors are open to everyone."
"We want those who kidnapped him to understand that Dr Elliott is more than our 100 lives at the same time because people depend on him," Mr Seydou said.
"It's really important to us to have him back and safe.
"Every second is important to the patients, to people from this area and to all of us."
Mr Seydou said that the Facebook page was created so that people may be made aware of the significant impact that the Elliotts have on the local community of Djibo.
It has become a site where people directly linked to the family have been able to share stories.
The hospital, which Ken and Jocelyn built and have run for 43 years, continues at a very basic level, Mr Seydou has heard. "[Dr. Elliott] has local people who usually support him but they don't have the technical skills required."
In the wake of the kidnapping, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade updated their travel advice for Australians travelling to Burkina Faso. DFAT now urges Australians to reconsider their need to travel to the African nation. There are 13 Australians currently registered in the nation, although the actual number could be higher, said a DFAT spokeswoman.
As DFAT scrambles diplomats to negotiations in the area from 1100 kilometres away in Ghana, the couple find themselves in the middle of a pan-African-Middle-Eastern power play.
A spokesman for Malian militant group Ansar Dine, Hamadou Ag Khallini, told AFP the couple were being held by jihadists from the al-Qaeda-linked "Emirate of the Sahara", which operates in northern Mali as a branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM). Rivals to IS through their al-Qaeda affiliation, AQIM specialises in kidnappings, trafficking arms and drugs. As Islamic State's visibility has increased, so has AQIM's desire to spread their own violent campaigns on new frontiers.
On Saturday they hit two targets at once. Hours before they took the Elliotts, they claimed responsibility for killing at least 27 people of 18 different nationalities on the same night in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou.