Mali: recent hostage release questions fate of Colombian sister Gloria
The recent hostage releases in Mali raise hopes that more hostages will be freed.
(illustrative image) GONZALO FUENTES / POOL / AFP
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The recent hostage releases in Mali raise hopes that more hostages will be freed.
Several Malians and six Westerners are still in the hands of the jihadists in the Sahel.
Among them is the Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Argoti, known as “Sister Gloria”.
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The Colombian nun was kidnapped on February 7, 2017 in Karangasso, in the Sikasso region, in southern Mali.
She then appears in two videos, including one alongside Franco-Swiss Sophie Pétronin, released Thursday evening.
It was in September 2018. Since then, no more news from the nun.
For the Bishop of Mopti, Monsignor Jean-Baptiste Tiama, at the head of the diocese of Sikasso at the time of the kidnapping of Sister Gloria,
the release of Sophie Pétronin
revives the hope of obtaining information on the fate of the nun .
“
If we could get in touch with the freed hostages, find out if they have any news from Gloria since at one point the videos that had appeared showed Sister Gloria in the service of Sophie Pétronin.
Since then, nothing, the jihadists say nothing.
The holders do not make anything feel.
We don't really know what to think.
And we still hope
”.
Is Sister Gloria still alive?
Are her captors the same as those of Sophie Pétronin?
And above all, wonders the Archbishop of Mopti, are the field research continuing?
No official communication on the subject from the Bamako authorities.
On the Colombia side, a month after the nun's kidnapping, the police sent two agents from the anti-kidnapping unit to
try to find her trace
, without success.
The last proof of Sister Gloria's life dates back to a video broadcast in September 2018 alongside Sophie Pétronin, to whom she notably provided care.
Before that, she had appeared in another video in which she requested the intervention of the Pope,
in January 2018
.
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