2 kidnap victims freed in West Africa
DAKAR, Senegal — A Canadian woman and an Italian man who had been kidnapped in December 2018 in Burkina Faso have been released in good health, according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in neighboring Mali.
Quebec resident Edith Blais and Italian Luca Tacchetto had been traveling by car in the southwest of Burkina Faso when all communication with their families abruptly ended Dec. 15, 2018. Burkina Faso’s security situation had been deteriorating in the year before their abduction and has gotten increasingly worse in the past year. Al-Qaida and Islamic State-linked groups are active in the country.
Mali’s U.N. peacekeeping spokesman, Olivier Salgado, told The Associated Press the two were taken to the U.N. mission based in Kidal in a civilian car Friday and were taken in. On Saturday, the two flew to Bamako and have met with the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, Mali’s president, other Malian authorities and the Canadian ambassador.
It is not known who kidnapped the two, if a ransom was paid or who arranged for the release.
Canada’s minister of foreign affairs also confirmed that he spoke with Blais and Tacchetto.
Jihadists groups in the past year have been pushing across Mali’s border into Burkina Faso, and are increasing attacks farther east as they gain territory in the smaller West African nation. More than half a million people have been displaced by the violence, according to a report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.