Emotional reunion for French hostage freed in Mali
PARIS — A 75-year-old French aid worker held hostage for four years by Islamic extremists in Mali was reunited Friday with her grandchildren in France, as relatives also welcomed home two Italians and a Malian politician freed with her this week.
Relatives enveloped Sophie Petronin in a huge embrace after the 75-year-old descended from the plane at the Villacoublay military airport southwest of Paris, where she was greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Wearing a white veil and a trench coat, Petronin held her grandsons in her arms.
“The French and I are glad to see you back at last, dear Sophie Petronin,” Macron tweeted. “Welcome home.”
Petronin met with Macron for about an hour at the airport. They did not speak to the press.
Macron expressed joy and relief at her release, thanked the Malian authorities and promised that the French military
would continue its fight against terrorism in the West African region.
In an emotional reunion late Thursday in the Malian capital, Petronin’s son Sebastien Chadaud cried when describing how he fought for her release, telling his mother: “I did my best.” She comforted him, saying, “You did what you could.”
As her son kissed her head, she said she just wanted to spend time with him, “to look at him and tell him, ‘Forgive me, I caused you so much pain, so much difficulty, so much work to help me get out.’ ”
Petronin was released with the two Italians and a prominent Malian politician this week, days after the Malian government released nearly 200 Islamic militants in an ap
parent prisoner exchange that some now fear could further destabilize the volatile country.
Rev. Pierluigi Maccalli and Nicola Chiacchio arrived at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Friday afternoon aboard an Italian government jet, welcomed by Premier Giuseppe Conte and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. Wearing face masks over their beards and clad in sweat suits, the two men greeted the officials on the tarmac and then proceeded into an airport VIP lounge.
Soumaila Cisse, a three-time presidential candidate in Mali, recounted months of arduous conditions before a precarious trip to their extraction point, arriving in Mali’s capital 48 hours after first being released in the country’s remote north.