Sophie Pétronin's release: the end of four years of captivity

Video capture taken on June 13, 2018 from an undated and non-located video provided by the SITE Intelligence Group shows the French Sophie Petronin, detained by the Malian branch of Al-Qaeda after her kidnapping in Gao.

INTELLIGENCE GROUP / AFP WEBSITE

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

Aid worker Sophie Pétronin was released this Thursday, October 8.

An event that puts an end to nearly four years of captivity. 

Publicity

Read more

Sophie Pétronin

had already narrowly escaped kidnapping by terrorists in 2012. Previously, the Frenchwoman had been working since 2001 in favor of orphans and malnourished children in Gao.

In 2012, she was able to leave the Algerian consulate in extremis, where she had taken refuge, and be exfiltrated from the country in disguise before the jihadists took control of the area.

The following year, however, she returned to Gao and three years later, on Christmas Eve, she was finally kidnapped in broad daylight.

The first months of her captivity: silence, no trace of Sophie Pétronin's life and no claims.

It was not until July 2017 that the GSIM, JNIM according to its acronym in Arabic, released a video showing the septuagenarian.

At the end of the recording a man calls for the intervention of Emmanuel Macron.

A sign that the kidnappers are ready to negotiate, then thinks the hostage's family who still believe in a near outcome.

But the months pass and Sophie Pétronin remains captive.

Mid-June 2018, a new video is released.

The French aid worker appears very tired, emaciated face.

It was she who then appealed to President Macron.

In November of the same year, his captors claimed in a new message that his state of health had deteriorated.

This time she does not appear.

Concern grows among those close to him.

Endless negotiations and false hopes

A few weeks later, his son Sébastien Pétronin accuses France of having refused an “ 

 ” from the kidnappers.

He who at that time multiplied trips to the Sahel, in agreement with the Quai d'Orsay, to try to establish contact with these kidnappers.

In 2019, no news from Sophie Pétronin, to the point that in December, for the third anniversary of the kidnapping, her husband criticized France for having forgotten her.

He even wonders if she is still alive.

Hope was reborn last spring, when the authorities received

at the Quai d'Orsay

to inform him that they had "

 " of the hostage dating from the month's debate. Of March.

Finally, last July, the release of Sophie Pétronin seemed within reach, and it ultimately did not take place.

At that time, an exchange of prisoners was already mentioned.

For her and her family, the fight for freedom has finally ended today.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Mali

• France

On the same subject

Mali: hostages Sophie Pétronin and Soumaïla Cissé have been released

RFI exclusivity

The son of the hostage Sophie Pétronin says to remain cautious but keeps the hope of a release

Abduction of Sophie Pétronin: "We don't know where this proof of life comes from"