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HOSTAGE

Air France staff caught up in Mali hostage drama

Twelve flight staff from Air France have been rescued safely from a hotel in Mali, where gunmen are currently holding a reported 170 hostages. Paris has sent an elite French unit to Bamako.

Published: 20 November 2015 12:54 CET
Air France staff caught up in Mali hostage drama
Security forces have surrounded the hotel in Bamako. Photo: AFP
Armed men on Friday took 170 people hostage at the Radisson Blu Hotel in the centre of Mali's capital, Bamako.
 
Twelve Air France staff were caught up in the drama and were apparently in the hotel at the time the gunmen stormed the building.
 
For a while their fate was uncertain but the airline has confirmed they have been safely rescued from the hotel. 

It remains unclear if the team, which was made up of two pilots and ten from the cabin crew, were actually taken hostage by the attackers or were in another part of the hotel.
Hostages who could recite from the Koran have been released, a security source told Reuters. 
 
The Malian security ministry has said that at least three hostages have already been killed, reported French newspaper Le Monde.
 
Le Point was reporting that one of those killed was French, but this has not been confirmed.
 
It remains unknown if other French people are inside the hotel at this point and how many.
 
Air France said that all flights to and from Bamako have been cancelled for Friday.
 
Paris has sent a team of elite commandos from the GIGN to Bamako.
 
Around 40 paramilitary police from the GIGN unit were on their way to assist Malian security forces dealing with a hostage situation at the Radisson Blu hotel, said a ministry spokesman.
   
The Twitter account of the paramilitary police posted a black-and-white image of the heavily-armed, black-clad troops upon their departure.

 

HOSTAGE

Swiss hostage ‘killed by jihadis in Mali’: ministry

A Swiss woman being held hostage in Mali "was apparently killed by kidnappers... about a month ago", Bern's foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.

Published: 10 October 2020 10:41 CEST
Swiss hostage 'killed by jihadis in Mali': ministry
The information was provided by Sophie Petronin (above), who returned to France on Friday after four years in captivity. Photo: Stringer/AFP
“It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of our fellow citizen,” foreign affairs chief Ignazio Cassis said, adding that “I condemn this cruel act and express my deepest sympathy to the relatives”.
   
Switzerland did not release the name of the hostage who had been killed, but said they had been held by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), an alliance comprising several jihadist groups aligned to al-Qaeda that has claimed responsibility for some of the biggest attacks in the Sahel region.
   
The foreign ministry (DFAE) said that “information about the killing was obtained by the French authorities from the recently released French hostage” Sophie Petronin, who returned to France on Friday after being freed by the Malian insurgents following almost four years in captivity.
 
   
Swiss authorities “are making every effort to find out more about the circumstances of the killing and the whereabouts of the remains,” the DFAE said, adding  that it “demands handing over” of the hostage's body.
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