Man held 6 years by al Qaeda in Mali is released
JOHANNESBURG — Al Qaeda’s North Africa branch has freed a South African man who was held hostage for six years in Mali and is now back home, South Africa’s government announced Thursday.
Stephen McGown, who was released on July 25, was the longest-held of a number of foreigners seized by Islamic extremists in Mali, where several armed groups roam the West African country’s north. The extremists have made a fortune over the past decade abducting foreigners in the vast Sahel region and demanding enormous ransoms for their release.
McGown was kidnapped in 2011 at a hostel in Timbuktu, where he had been traveling as a tourist. He also has British citizenship.
“It was a big surprise when Stephen walked through the door,” his father, Malcolm, told reporters. “He felt as sound and as strong as before.”
South Africa’s minister for international relations, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, said the government does not pay ransom in hostage situations.
“We can confirm that he has been released without any conditions whatsoever,” said Brian Dube, spokesman for the Ministry of State Security. He said Mali’s government, nongovernmental groups and other individuals were involved in negotiations but didn’t give details.
McGown’s release follows that of Swedish national Johan Gustafsson, who was freed in late June after being kidnapped along with McGown in November 2011. Swedish officials denied that a ransom had been paid, as other European governments have done to secure the release of their citizens in the Sahel. A Dutch tourist seized in the same abduction was freed in a French raid in 2015.
In early July, the 42-year-old McGown was included in a proof-of-life video released by the al Qaeda-linked Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen group in Mali. The video showed six foreign hostages shortly before French President Emmanuel Macron arrived for an antiterror summit.
Extremists are still believed to be holding a Colombian nun taken from Mali, an Australian doctor and a Romanian man seized at different times in Burkina Faso, and an American who was working with a nonprofit organization in Niger.
Islamic extremists seized control of Mali’s north in 2012. While they were forced out of strongholds a year later by a French-led military intervention, jihadists continue to attack Malian and French soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers. Five regional countries — Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad — have now created a 5,000-strong multinational military force against the extremists.