Al-Qaeda in Mali release proof video of hostages

AL-QAEDA’S Mali branch has released a proof-of-life video of six foreign hostages, including elderly Australian surgeon Arthur Kenneth Elliott and Frenchwoman Sophie Petronin, US-based monitoring group SITE said.

The 16 minute, 50 second video by Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, also known as the Group to Support Islam and Muslims, was released on Telegram on Saturday, SITE said.

The other four hostages shown are South African Stephen McGown, Romanian Iulian Ghergut, Swiss missionary Beatrice Stockly and Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti.

No group had previously claimed responsibility for kidnapping Frenchwoman Petronin, who was abducted in late 2016 by armed men in the northern Malian town of Gao, where she ran an organisation for malnourished children.

The video was released just before President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Mali yesterday to consolidate Western backing for a regional anti-jihadist force.

France intervened to chase out jihadists linked to al-Qaeda who had overtaken key northern cities in Mali in 2013. That mission evolved into the current Barkhane deployment launched in 2014 with an expanded mandate for counterterror operations across the Sahel.

Macron is looking to extra backing from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the US beyond a pledge of $57.2 million made by the EU.