• Mali, a video would show that Father Maccalli and Nicola Chiacchio are alive

  • Attack on a village in Mali, 100 dead

  • Mali, in a video the appeal of 6 hostages: also two Catholic nuns in the hands of Al Qaeda

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October 10, 2021 A Colombian Franciscan nun, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, kidnapped in February 2017 by jihadists in Mali, was released. This was announced by the Malian presidency in a statement. Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti was kidnapped on February 7, 2017 in Karangasso in southern Mali near the border with Burkina Faso.



According to the Malian presidency, the release is "the culmination of 4 years and 8 months of joint efforts by various intelligence services". The president of the Transition in Mali, Colonel Assimi Goita, assures that "efforts are underway" to free all the kidnapped in Mali. The release of the Colombian nun was confirmed to AFP by the archbishop of Bamako, Monsignor Jean Zerbo, who assured that the nun "is well". The Malian presidency paid tribute in a tweet to the 'courage' of the Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali. The tweet recalls that the nun, Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, was kidnapped on 7 February 2017 in Karangasso, in the district of Kutiala, on the border between Mali and Burkina Faso, where she worked as a missionary.



The period of imprisonment

The last sign that he was still alive came in May, with a letter delivered to his brother in Colombia, which the nun had written in February. "I send all my best regards, the good Lord bless them and grant them health. I have been a prisoner for four years and now I am with a new group. May everyone pray a lot for me", the 57-year-old nun wrote to her brother Edgar , according to what Avvenire reported in July.



According to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACS) which had seen the letter, the letter had arrived with the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and in the text the sister referred to the Group for the support of Islam and ai Muslims (Gsim), a jihadist group active since 2017 in north-central Mali, which unites several groups linked to Al Qaeda. 



In July 2017, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti appeared along with five other hostages in a video released by al Qaeda on Telegram. In January 2018, another video was released on the Internet in which the nun asked Pope Francis for help in his release.



Sophie Petronin, a French humanitarian worker, freed on October 8, 2020, together with the Italians Father Pierluigi Maccalli and Nicola Chiacchio, and Soumaila Cissé, former Minister of Finance of Mali, had also spoken of the nun. Petronin said he spent most of his imprisonment with the Colombian nun, in various camps, until they were separated a few days before his release. He said the nun was alive, but she needed care. The four hostages were released shortly after the Malian government released 100 jihadists. In Karangasso, where she was kidnapped, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti was in charge of a mission with a health center, an orphanage and a center for women's literacy and children's catechesis.



Father Maccalli: "Joy, thanks to all those who contributed to his release"

"The Farnesina confirmed the news to me: only joy"! This is the comment made to the Fides agency by Father Gigi Maccalli, priest of the Society for African Missions (SMA), on the release of Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez who had been kidnapped in Mali on 7 February 2017 together with Maccalli. Maccalli, currently engaged in France, received the news of the nun's release by telephone from Father Antonio Porcellato, Superior General (SMA) to whom he confirmed that he had spoken with Sister Noemi Quesada, former Superior General of the Congregation of Sister Gloria, currently in Costa Rica, which confirmed the great emotion and joy they are sharing in Colombia.



"The Superior General Sma also expressed gratitude for the Farnesina and the precious work carried out in the most total discretion for the protection of the hostages", adds Fides, "the release of Sister Gloria took place exactly one year after that of her father. Gigi". 



The Gioa della Marogna also dealt with the liberation of the religious

'' Joy '' for the release of the Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti, kidnapped on 7 January 2017 by jihadists in Mali and freed today. According to Adnkronos, this is expressed by Cecilia Marogna, who worked on the case on behalf of the Vatican on behalf of Cardinal Angelo Becciu. A story that ended up at the center, moreover, of the maxi-trial that sees her accused together with the former number two of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, in which the entrepreneur from Cagliari is accused of embezzlement in relation to 575 thousand euros paid to her Logsic Doo company by the secretariat of state for intelligence activities (among other things, the release of the kidnapped Colombian nun) and which, according to the Vatican magistrates, would have been spent on luxury goods.



'' Cecilia Marogna's was a silent work, carried out even if she was then denied due acclaim - says the head of her defensive pool, Riccardo Sindoca - She has dealt with the case for a long time, a circumstance that she can document since now and for dates with documents, chats and communications.

They tried to pass her as 'reliable', they mortified her work by asserting the uselessness of her support.

We would like to know, now, the Italian services in what capacity they dealt with a Colombian nun and why in Rome there is so much interest in a non-Italian citizen.

What will the Vatican investigating party still be able to sustain in the face of these facts? ''.


AFRICA / MALI - "Only joy": Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez freed https://t.co/kyUUBOuOkI pic.twitter.com/yya1e55xk6

- Agenzia Fides (@AenziaFides) October 9, 2021