Two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) employees who were kidnapped in early March in northern Mali have been released, the organization’s Malian branch announced on Sunday. “We confirm that the two ICRC employees kidnapped on March 4 between Gao and Kidal in northern Mali were released this evening,” the branch wrote on Twitter. “Our colleagues are well and have been released unharmed without conditions. We thank all those who contributed to their release.”
Mali has been engulfed in a security and political crisis since 2012, when jihadist and separatist insurgencies erupted in the north. Jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State have expanded their operations into central Mali, and the unrest has spilled over into neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso. Thousands of civilians, police officers and soldiers have been killed across the region, and more than two million people have been displaced from their homes.
The ICRC has operated in Mali for over three decades. Its director of operations, Martin Schuepp, warned last year that widespread crime posed a significant security challenge. Mali is currently ruled by a junta that, last year, forced France to withdraw troops who had been stationed there for a decade on an anti‑jihadist mission. In the absence of French forces, the junta has enlisted Russia’s Wagner group to bolster government troops. Weak government control in parts of the country has made kidnappings increasingly common, with motives ranging from ransom demands to acts of reprisal.
Recent incidents illustrate the perilous environment: a World Health Organization doctor was abducted in January and freed in February, and in May armed men kidnapped three Italians and a Togolese national in the country’s southeast.
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