What we know about the conditions of the release of Soumaïla Cissé and Sophie Pétronin

The ex-French hostage Sophie (L) upon her arrival on French soil surrounded by President E. Macron (L) and Minister Le Drian (D).

GONZALO FUENTES / POOL / AFP

Text by: David Baché

5 mins

Five days after the release of Soumaïla Cissé, Sophie Pétronin and two Italian hostages by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims, linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in exchange for jihadist fighters, many questions still surround this exchange. 

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We know a little more every day about

the jihadists released

in exchange for the four hostages.

We now know their number.

After having long cautiously stated that there were several dozen, we now know with certainty that they were more than 200. Two hundred and six is ​​the most reliable figure, even if some actors stick to 204. It It must be said that they were extracted from the Central Detention Center in Bamako in particular, but also from State Security cells, the Malian intelligence services, for which the culture of secrecy is a working condition.

A few executives and a lot of little hands

We also know more about the identity of those released.

Negotiations dragged on on this subject and many things were said and then denied.

We know that there were a few executives among them, including people involved in the bloodiest attacks that marked Mali and the region:

the Terrasse in Bamako

, the Byblos in Sévaré, Grand Bassam in Côte d'Ivoire, Ouagadougou in Burkina ... Some of the released detainees were therefore among the attackers or the organizers of these attacks.

The rest are mostly small hands.

Some even claim that there were innocent people.

It must be said that there are very few, in Malian prisons, among all those who are suspected of belonging to terrorist groups, to have actually been brought before a judge.

In any case, more than 200 people are now free thanks to this exchange.

And those who are not important figures in the Support Group for Islam and Muslims are now indebted to him, to say the least.

They therefore further amplify the terrorist threat, in Mali and in neighboring countries.

Little information about a potential ransom

The GSIM is a coalition of jihadist groups led by the Malian Tuareg Iyad Ag Ghali, the founder of Ansar Dine, and headed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The negotiations on the jihadist side were not led by Iyad Ag Ghali, but one of his right-hand men: Seidane Ag Hitta, sadly known for his involvement in the assassination of

 Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon

 in Kidal in 2013, but also , directly or indirectly, in other hostage cases in the Sahel.

About a potential ransom, we hardly know anything.

A classic of hostage releases.

We can see it more clearly, generally much later.

This ransom could reach, according to various sources and observers, 10 to 20 million euros.

Difficult to confirm this information with any certainty, just as it is very difficult to say who put their hand in their pockets between France, Mali, Italy or the Vatican… Qatar, for a while, was even mentioned.

The Élysée says it played a secondary role

To believe the Elysee, the role of France in this affair would be above all secondary.

It is certain that the initiative and the conduct of the negotiations are to the credit of the Malian authorities.

They had started and largely advanced under the presidency of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and continued to finally end after the military coup of August 18 last.

According to an article in Médiapart, these negotiations could even have been successful this summer if France had not intervened to link the fate of

Sophie Pétronin to that of Soumaïla Cissé

, so that the second would not be released without the first.

What Paris denies.

Just as he denies paying a ransom.

On the other counterpart, the alleged liberated jihadists, did France have a right of scrutiny?

It is the French force Barkhane which arrests the majority of terrorists who fill the Malian jails.

Paris claims not to have been aware of it, nor to have had a say in the terms of the negotiations.

But it is still too early to claim to answer all the questions raised by this kind of affair.

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