logo
ADVERTISEMENT

Two aid workers kidnapped in Mali militant hotspot

Mali has been gripped by a security crisis since 2012 and kidnappings are common.

image
by The Star

Big-read05 March 2023 - 11:55
ADVERTISEMENT

In Summary


• The organisation said the abductions took place on a road between the north-eastern cities of Gao and Kidal. 

• An area which has long been a hotspot for violence by Islamist militias.

Two workers for the International Committee of the Red Cross have been kidnapped in Mali.

The organisation said the abductions took place on a road between the north-eastern cities of Gao and Kidal - an area which has long been a hotspot for violence by Islamist militias.

Mali has been gripped by a security crisis since 2012 and kidnappings are common, with motives including demands for ransom and acts of reprisal against security operations by the government.

Last month in Mali, a World Health Organization doctor was freed weeks after he was kidnapped from his car in the district of Ménaka. And back in May 2022, gunmen abducted three Italians and a Togolese national.

The violence has also spread into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands and displacing more than two million people in the region.

ADVERTISEMENT