Mali’s presidency has announced four people abducted and detained in Mali, including prominent Malian opposition leader, Soumaila Cisse and a French aid worker, Sophie Petronin, have been released by suspected insurgents.
Soumaila Cisse, 70, and Frenchwoman Sophie Petronin, 75, who were believed to have been held by al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters, were on their way to the capital, Bamako in a military plane following their release, Mali’s presidency said on Twitter.
Hundreds of Mr Cissé’s supporters then gathered at Bamako airport to greet the opposition leader on his arrival. Others expressed their jubilation by driving through the streets of the capital sounding their car horns.
“I am very happy to be here, for Mali, for my family,” Mr Cissé said on his return, adding: “I have spent six months… in conditions that were very austere… in a state of isolation.”
Italian hostages, Nicola Chiacchio and Pier Luigi Maccalli, were also freed, the president’s office added in a statement read on national television.
The French Embassy in Bamako’s Twitter account also shared the news, adding: “AT LAST!”
French President, Emmanuel Macron said he felt “immense relief” and was “happy to know she (Ms Pétronin) is free”.
“To the Malian authorities, thank you,” he said in a tweet, adding: “The fight against terrorism in the Sahel continues.”
Earlier this week, Ms Pétronin’s son, Sébastien Chadaud said he was weary of celebrating after earlier reports that his mother was set to be free proved to be false. “We’ve already lived through moments like this, for four years,” he said
Sophie Petronin, well known locally for her work helping orphans and other children suffering from malnutrition was abducted on Christmas Eve 2016 in the northern city of Gao,
She had been running Swiss charity Association Aid to Gao since 2004 and was an expert in guinea-worm disease, which spread through contaminated water in northern Mali.
She has appeared in two hostage videos and at one point her son went to a local mediator who said the kidnappers were prepared to accept a ransom for her release. In one video, in June 2018, she appealed for help from President Emmanuel Macron, looking tired and lean. She was suffering from cancer and malaria at the time of her abduction.
The hostages’ release followed the freeing by Malian authorities of nearly 200 suspected fighters which had fuelled speculation that a prisoner exchange was imminent.
Cisse, a three-time presidential candidate, was abducted on March 25 while campaigning in his home town of Niafunke in central Mali ahead of a parliamentary election. He is a popular politician who served as finance minister in the 1990s.
Mali has been struggling to contain an armed rebellion that first emerged in 2012, and which has since killed thousands of people.
The volatile West African nation has been plagued by armed groups for years, some of which have pledged allegiance to the ISIL (ISIS) armed group and al-Qaeda networks.
A United Nations peacekeeping mission is supporting the peace process in Mali after the north of the country temporarily fell into the hands of rebels in 2012, while France has stationed about 5,100 soldiers in the Sahel region.
