After more than 1,380 days of detention, hostage Sophie Pétronin is finally free.
The French septuagenarian was released in Mali, we learned Thursday, September 8.
Last weekend, more than a hundred convicted or suspected jihadists were released in the country as part of negotiations for the release of the last French hostage in the world, as well as that of Soumaïla Cissé, figure national policy.
Held for four years
Sophie Pétronin, who ran a small Franco-Swiss NGO helping children suffering from malnutrition, was abducted on December 24, 2016 in Gao, in northern Mali, and was detained by the Group for the Support of Islam and of Muslims (GSIM), linked to Al-Qaeda.
She appeared in videos released in 2017 and 2018 by GSIM.
The last video where she appeared was received in mid-June 2018. It shows her very tired, her face emaciated, calling on French President Emmanuel Macron, believing that the Head of State had "forgotten" her.
Sophie Pétronin's son, Sébastien Chadaud-Pétronin, who regularly challenged the French authorities, estimated, in May 2019, that his mother was "sacrificed" by the refusal, according to him, of France to negotiate with the kidnappers.
"The will [of Emmanuel Macron] is not enough, now we need action," he said at the time on France Info.
His family announced on April 1, 2020 that the government had sent him proof of recent life.
Soumaïla Cissé, former leader of the parliamentary opposition and second on three occasions in the presidential election, was kidnapped on March 25, while he was campaigning for the legislative elections in his electoral stronghold of Niafounké, in the Timbuktu region, north-west Mali.
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