“Beatrice, a Swiss citizen, was kidnapped in her home in Timbuktu by gunmen,” a Timbuktu government official told AFP.
A Malian security source said armed men had gone to her home on Thursday night, “knocked on the door, she opened, and they left with her.”
Beatrice Stockly was kidnapped a first time in April 2012 by Islamist fighters but released thanks to mediation efforts by Burkina Faso authorities.
Two foreign hostages seized the previous year in 2011 by members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a South African and a Swede, are still in captivity.
Jihadist fighters including AQIM members seized control of Mali's vast remote north in March-April 2012 but were chased out the following year by a French-led military intervention.
A regional French counterterrorism force is still conducting operations in the area.
Entire swathes of the north remain beyond the reach of both the Malian army and foreign troops, however.
KIDNAPPING
Extremists abduct Swiss woman in north Mali
Gunmen abducted a Swiss woman overnight Thursday to Friday in Timbuktu in northern Mali, where she had lived for several years and was previously held by extremists, official sources say.
MILITARY
Denmark to deploy special forces to Mali in 2022
Denmark plans to deploy about 100 special forces to Mali early next year to boost the elite anti-jihadist European task force Takuba headed by France, the government announced Thursday.
“The terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda remainssignificant,” the foreign and defence ministries said in a joint statement.
“They want to create a hub in West Africa for their extremist regime… and we cannot allow that to happen,” they added.
The Danish contingent, which apart from the special forces will also include top level military officers and surgeons, will be deployed at the beginning of 2022, the ministries said.
Copenhagen also plans to send a military transport plane to assist the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA.
The French-led Takuba multinational force, launched in March 2020, has already seen Czech, Swedish and Estonian troops deployed in the region but France has struggled to obtain significant support from its larger EU partners.
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