Kidnapped Malian opposition leader released

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) - A Malian opposition leader abducted in March has been released, the country's presidency confirmed on Friday.

Soumaila Cisse, leader of the Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD), was taken hostage in the town of Niafounke, Timbuktu region, in northwest Mali by militants on March 25, 2020, while he was campaigning for elections.

The attack was not claimed, but the government of then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was overthrown in a coup last August, was engaged in negotiations for his release.

The new transitional government continued these negotiations which led to the Cisse's release, as well as the release of Sophie Petronin, a French humanitarian worker. She had been held hostage for four years. Two other Italian hostages were also freed.

Cisse said his kidnappers asked him to make a video on Sept. 26 to prove he is alive.

"I spent six months in the most austere climate, in very difficult living conditions in the Great Sahara, in almost permanent isolation. But I didn't suffer any violence, neither physical nor verbal," he told reporters after his release.

He said he was not completely cut off from the rest of the world because he regularly followed the news and received messages of encouragement from his family.

''Very happy to learn that Honorable Soumaila Cisse is free. During the Peace and Security Council of October 9 in Mali, the President of the AU Commission welcomed this release. Congratulations to all those who have invested in this salutary action," Pierre Buyoya, the African Union Commission (AUC) high representative for Mali and the Sahel tweeted.

The operation follows the release of 180 militants from a prison in Bamako, the Malian capital, last weekend. Over 70 men were released on Saturday and the rest on the day after. They were flown to the north of the country, according to Malian authorities.

On Oct. 8, the Malian government also proceeded to release political and military personalities arrested during the coup. This was a demand of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in addition to the dissolution of the country's post-coup junta, which has yet to occur.