75-year-old hostage who was released in Mali arrives home in France

PARIS — A 75-year-old aid worker held hostage for four years by Islamic extremists in Mali was reunited Friday with her grandchildren here, as relatives also welcomed home two Italians and a Malian politician freed with her this week.

They were released earlier this week, days after the Malian government freed nearly 200 Islamic militants in an apparent prisoner exchange.

But the homecoming was muted by the announcement later Friday that a Swiss woman held captive by the same extremist group had been killed.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry didn’t name the woman or provide more details other than to say she was killed about a month ago.

It said it had received the information from French authorities, who were notified by “the recently released French hostage.”

“It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of our fellow citizen,” Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said in a statement. “I condemn this cruel act and express my deepest sympathy to the relatives.”

Earlier Friday, 75-year-old aid worker Sophie Petronin descended from a 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 reporters.

Macron expressed joy and relief at her release, thanked the Malian authorities and promised 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.

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.

There was no immediate information about the five other foreign hostages that the Islamic militants from JNIM are believed to still hold.

It also wasn’t known whether a ransom was paid, though extremist groups long have funded their operations with such payments from European governments.

Cisse, who had been kidnapped earlier this year while campaigning for re-election as a legislator, told Mali’s state broadcaster ORTM that after months of captivity things began to move quickly at the end of September.

“I spent six months in … very difficult living conditions, in almost permanent isolation, but I must confess that I was not subjected to any violence, neither physical nor verbal,” Cisse told ORTM.

Looking energetic and determined despite her ordeal, Petronin told French broadcasters she wants to go back to the northern Malian town of Gao to see the children she was helping before she was kidnapped.

“I made a commitment to the children. For four years I haven’t seen how the programs are working,” she said, referring to her work with orphaned and malnourished children. “I will go to France, to Switzerland, and then I will come back to see what’s happening here.”

During her captivity, Petronin said she was allowed to listen to the radio, and her guards shared messages and videos with her, including one from her son.

“I hung on — I prayed a lot because I had a lot of time,” Petronin told reporters at the French Embassy in Bamako. “I transformed detention … into a spiritual retreat, if one can say that.”