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As Mali strives to contain violence, kidnappings by Al-Qaida and ISIL affiliates are not uncommon.
A Colombian nun was kidnapped by militants in Mali in 2017 and has now been released.
Gloria Cecilia Narvaez was released on Saturday after being imprisoned for more than four years. She was kidnapped by the Macina Liberation Front, an organization associated with Al Qaeda, near the border of Burkina Faso in February 2017.
“The President of Mali pays tribute to the courage and bravery of the nuns. This liberation is the highest achievement of four years and eight months of joint efforts by several intelligence agencies,” the president said in a statement.
The photos posted on the President’s Twitter show that Narváz was smiling and wearing a yellow robe and headscarf, meeting with Mali’s interim president Asimi Goita.
On the day of October 9th, Colombian religious sister Gloria NARVAEZ released. She was abducted on February 7, 2017 in Calangasso in the Koutiala circle on the border of Mali and Burkina Faso.
The President of Mali paid tribute to the courage and bravery of the sisters. pic.twitter.com/xIDiIhzjMR— President of Mali (@PresidenceMali) October 9, 2021
Kidnapping has always been a lucrative source of cash for armed groups in the Sahel region of West Africa, where they are launching an ever-increasing insurgency against national troops, French troops and United Nations peacekeepers.
The president did not say whether any ransom was paid for Narvaz.
Since 2012, Mali has been working to curb violence related to Al-Qaida and ISIL affiliated groups. The combatants have now expanded their operations from their strongholds in the northern desert of the country to their centers and neighbouring countries Burkina Faso and Niger.
In April, a French journalist was kidnapped in northern Mali. In a hostage video, Olivier Dubois said that the largest coalition of armed groups in the Sahel, the Organization for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), kidnapped him.
Gunman Kidnapping three Chinese citizens In July, two Mauritanians from a construction site in southwestern Mali.
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