Macron Welcomes Release Of French Aid Worker Held Hostage By Jihadists In Mali For 4 Years

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th October, 2020) French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday welcomed�the release and soon return to France of a humanitarian worker who was kidnapped and held in captivity by Islamists in the West African country of Mali for almost four years.

Sophie Petronin was abducted by a group of armed jihadist militants in December 2016 in the northeastern Malian city of Gao. She spent 1,381 days in extremists' custody. Petronin has been known as the last French hostage in the world.

"I just exchanged a few words by phone with Sophie Petronin. What a joy to have heard her voice and to know that she is now safe! I will welcome him when he returns to France tomorrow," Macron tweeted.

On October 5, 2020, the Malian authorities freed over 100 Islamists to secure the release of Petronin, two Italian nationals and the country's 70-year-old politician, Soumaila Cisse, who was also kidnapped by jihadists on March 25, 2020, and freed on October 6.

The Islamist insurgency in Mali has been rocking the country's north since 2011, initiated as a separatist uprising. The Malian authorities have been struggling to obtain full control over territories taken by jihadist militant groups ever since, with the military support of French forces, which in 2013 helped to regain somewhat control over the region.