Ex-hostage Sophie Pétronin, back in Mali, wanted by the gendarmerie

Former French hostage Sophie Pétronin at the presidential palace in Bamako after her release on October 8, 2020. Malian presidency / AP

Text by: David Baché

3 min

The ex-hostage Sophie Pétronin, released a year ago on October 8, 2020, after four years of captivity in the North, has returned to Mali where she is wanted by the security forces.

The information was withheld by RFI for several days for security reasons, but it has since been disseminated by other media, Malian and French, and on social networks, often accompanied by erroneous information. 

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Sophie Pétronin returned to Mali last March.

After several visa applications refused by Bamako, the ex-hostage accompanied by her son Sébastien goes through Senegal and crosses the border by road, without hiding his identity from police officers, according to sources close to the family.

These same sources explain that Sophie Pétronin was not happy in Switzerland and that she wanted to find the country where she had spent twenty years of her life and where her adopted daughter is still located.

Seven months and a wanted notice 

More than seven months passed without difficulty, until this wanted notice issued by the Malian gendarmerie last Friday (the document is dated October 29), asking all the gendarmerie units to apprehend Sophie Pétronin and " 

”to the direction of the national gendarmerie.

According to this document, authenticated by RFI with the Malian Ministry of Security, the ex-hostage was " 

", more than 350 km from Bamako, in the south-east of the country.  

► To read also: Sophie Pétronin: "I accepted what was happening to me" [Interview]

Why are the Malian forces today seeking to apprehend Sophie Pétronin?

Was his presence on the territory known, tolerated, had it been regularized?

Is it a matter of security?

Did Sophie Pétronin behave that would have displeased the authorities?

Finally, how can we explain that the intelligence services and the security forces, if they are really looking for Sophie Pétronin, have not already found her?

In any case, various very accessible sources know his place of residence, and the search notice of the gendarmerie does not in any way fall under a disappearance notice. 

Never in Sikasso 

His relatives claim that they cannot explain this wanted notice, nor what motivated it, and assure that Sophie Pétronin has never been to Sikasso, that she has never been far from Bamako, and that she had no intention of returning to Gao, a northern city where she had lived until her kidnapping in 2016. They do not specify either the steps actually taken with the authorities to clarify the status of Sophie Pétronin on Malian soil. 

"Remove ambiguities" 

On the side of the Ministry of Security, it is simply explained that it is a question of "

 ", without further details on the regularity of his situation.  

According to several sources, the French Embassy was quickly informed of the presence in Mali of Sophie Pétronin.

But no comment on these latest developments which are, according to the embassy, ​​a "

 ". 

Same story from French diplomatic sources who say they do not interpret this wanted notice as a "

 " on the part of the Malian authorities vis-à-vis France, in the current context yet already tense. 

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