Bamako – A Burkinabe worker with the French-based medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) kidnapped in jihadist-torn Mali was released Friday, police and humanitarian sources said.
The aid worker – who worked in the logistics department of MSF – was seized by armed men on Monday in the northeastern city of Gao, the region’s biggest town, police sources told AFP.
“The MSF agent kidnapped on December 19 has been freed today around 0800 GMT,” one police source in Gao said.
A foreign humanitarian source in the city confirmed this account.
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“He has been released and is safe and sound. He flew on a humanitarian flight to (Mali’s capital) Bamako, they told AFP.
An MSF official confirmed the release, without giving further details.
Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, is struggling with a decade-long jihadist insurgency that has swept into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.
Across the three Sahel countries, thousands of civilians, troops and police have died and more than two million people have fled their homes.
Reasons for kidnappings in Mali range from ideology to crime, and some victims may be released after a ransom is paid.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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