Mali: Release of proof-of-life video of Swiss hostage

NOUAKCHOT, Mauritania (AA) - Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) militant group late Tuesday broadcasted a video purporting to show a Swiss hostage who was abducted in northern Mali more than a year ago.

In the video aired by Al-Akhbar, a Mauritanian news agency, a woman who identified herself as Beatrice Stockly thanked her family and the Swiss government for the efforts made to rescue her since she was kidnapped in January 2016 in Timbuktu, in northern Mali.

According to the Mauritanian site which regularly broadcasts AQIM statements, the video sequence was entitled "the difficult equation" and it lasted two minutes and 15 seconds.

"Thank you Mom [...] I received your photo and your letter, I am in good health, I greet my little sister Monica and I thank the Swiss government for all its efforts," she said in the video.

In June 2016, AQIM also put out a video aiming to show she was alive.

Stockly, a Christian missionary who carried out humanitarian work in Timbuktu, was abducted from her home in January 2016. She had previously been kidnapped in April 2012, shortly after Timbuktu fell to the Ansar Dine group.

Last month, Sophie Petronin, a Swiss-French aid worker was also abducted in the city of Gao in northern Mali. Responsibility for the kidnapping has yet to be claimed.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has however claimed responsibility for recent attacks and kidnappings in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The group is among a number of militant organizations active in northern Mali, where French and Malian troops are conducting counterterrorism operations.