Freed politician details months as al Qaeda hostage

BAMAKO, Mali — Malian politician Soumaila Cisse’s captors kept him constantly on the move in the inhospitable desert, he told French television, describing his six months with al Qaedalinked militants as “near permanent physical and moral isolation.”

His interview with TV5 Monde came as Swiss authorities confirmed that another hostage held by the same group was dead.

The militants freed Cisse in the past week along with French hostage Sophie Petronin and Italians Nicola Chiacchio and the Rev. Pierluigi Maccalli days after Mali’s government released nearly 200 jailed jihadists in an apparent exchange.

Late Friday, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said French authorities had informed them that Swiss hostage Beatrice Stoeckli had been killed about a month ago. Authorities had been trying to negotiate her release since she was kidnapped four years ago. There was no immediate information about the four other foreign hostages still being held by the group known as JNIM: Australian doctor Ken Elliott, Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti, South African national Christo Bothma and Romanian citizen Julian Ghergut.

It was not known whether a ransom had been paid, though extremist groups have long funded their operations with such payments from European governments.

Cisse, 70, who was abducted while campaigning in northern Mali for reelection as a parliament member, told TV5 Monde that his captors moved them by motorcycle, boat, even camel.

“I was detained most of the six months in the Sahara, in more than 20 different locations, I can’t tell you exactly where — south and north, west and east,“he said.

While he said he was not abused physically or verbally, he described extremely difficult conditions in the desert, and said he lacked the medication he needed. He said he was kept apart from the European hostages.

Cisse said he was able to listen to the radio and was angered by news of the Aug. 18 military coup that overthrew Mali’s democratically elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

On Friday, the French and Italian hostages returned to Europe, where they were greeted by dignitaries and family members. Petronin, 75, said she had been treated well by her captors, and identified herself as a Muslim going by the name Mariam, not Sophie.

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

Baba Ahmed is an Associated Press writer.

Michele Cattani / AFP / Getty Images Malian politician Soumaila Cisse greets a relative as he arrives at his home in Bamako. Cisse says he was detained most of the six months in the Sahara, in more than 20 different locations.