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Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti, one of many six hostages that was held by Al-Qaeda’s Mali department after being kidnapped in 2017.
Web site Intelligence Group / AFP
- Mali Presidency says a nun that was kidnapped by jihadists has lastly been freed.
- This Colombian nun was kidnapped by gunmen in southern Mali again in 2017.
- Safety forces searched territories in Mali and Burkina Faso with no luck for a very long time.
A Franciscan nun from Colombia kidnapped by jihadists in Mali greater than 4 years in the past has been freed, Mali’s presidency stated.
Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez was taken hostage on 7 February 2017 in southern Mali close to the border with Burkina Faso the place she had been working as a missionary.
A press release on the presidential Twitter account paid tribute to her “braveness and bravado” together with images of the nun taken after her launch Saturday.
Sister Gloria stated:
I thank the Malian authorities, the president, all of the Malian authorities, for all of the efforts you’ve got made to liberate me, might God bless you, might God bless Mali. I’m very joyful, I stayed wholesome for 5 years, thank God,” the nun stated, smiling and carrying a yellow gown.
– She spoke in pictures broadcast on state tv displaying her with Mali’s interim president Colonel Assimi Goita and the archbishop of Bamako Jean Zerbo.
Her liberation had been the fruit of “4 years and eight months of the mixed effort of a number of intelligence companies”, the presidency stated.
Within the official assertion, Goita assured that “efforts are beneath manner” to safe the discharge of all these nonetheless being held in Mali.
Archbishop Zerbo stated Sister Gloria was “doing nicely”.
“We prayed lots for her launch. I thank the Malian authorities and different good individuals who made this launch doable,” the archbishop stated.
Sister Gloria, 59, was kidnapped close to Koutiala, 400 kilometres east of Bamako. She had labored as a missionary for six years within the parish of Karangasso with three different nuns.
In line with one among her colleagues, Sister Carmen Isabel Valencia, she provided herself rather than two youthful nuns the abductors have been making ready to take.
“She is a girl of a really explicit human high quality, right down to earth … moved by the love of the poor,” Sister Carmen stated.
MUST READ | Gunmen kidnap Colombian nun in southern Mali
In Colombia, her brother Edgar Narvaez stated he was very emotional after receiving information of her launch.
“She is in good well being, thank God. They despatched me photos and he or she seems nicely,” he informed AFP.
In a letter despatched final July by the Crimson Cross to her brother, Sister Gloria stated she was held by “a gaggle of GSIM”, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group to Assist Islam and Muslims, the biggest jihadist alliance within the Sahel.
A supply near the negotiations to launch her informed AFP she had not been ill-treated throughout her captivity and through that point she had discovered the Koran.
“The negotiations lasted months, years,” stated the supply, with out giving additional particulars.
Sure for Rome
An official at Bamako airport, talking on situation of anonymity, informed AFP the nun had arrived within the Malian capital on Saturday night from the place she was as a result of fly to Rome. Her departure from Bamako was confirmed by the town’s archdiocese.
In Colombia, Vice-President Marta Lucia Ramirez – who can also be international minister – stated she was “very joyful” at Sister Gloria’s launch, which she attributed to the work of the federal government and likewise harassed the “humanitarian efforts of the French authorities to contribute to this success”.
Nationwide police director Jorge Luis Vargas additionally welcomed her launch.
He stated:
At present is excellent information for Colombia, but in addition for the nationwide police for all of the efforts made over time to safe the protected launch of our compatriot.
Vargas stated conferences had been held with a number of European and African ambassadors to attempt to safe the nun’s launch.
“With Interpol, and with different worldwide organisations, we have now at all times sought to convey these accountable to justice.”
There have been irregular experiences concerning the nun over time, together with at the start of 2021, when two Europeans who managed to flee captivity reported that she was nicely.
Then in March, her brother acquired proof that she was nonetheless alive, handed on from the Crimson Cross.
READ | Searches throughout Mali and Burkina Faso for kidnapped nun
It was a letter written in capital letters “as a result of she at all times used capital letters”, containing the names of their mother and father and ending together with her signature, he informed AFP earlier this yr.
Mali has been struggling to include a jihadist insurgency that first emerged within the north of the nation in 2012, and which has since unfold to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Kidnappings, as soon as uncommon, have change into extra frequent lately as a safety disaster has deepened in Mali, significantly within the centre of the previous French colony.
French journalist Olivier Dubois was kidnapped on 8 April in northern Mali by jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Dubois, who labored with a number of French information retailers, stated in a hostage video that GSIM had kidnapped him.
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