"As part of negotiations to obtain the release of Soumïla Cissé and Sophie Pétronin, more than 100 jihadist prisoners were released on Malian territory over the weekend", a source close to the negotiations told AFP on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The information was confirmed by an official at the Malian security services.
The prisoners were released in the central region of Niono and in Tessalit, in the North after arriving by plane.
A lawmaker in Tessalit confirme to AFP that "large numbers of jihadist prisoners" arrived there on Sunday.
Malian authorities suspect that an Al-Qaeda-linked group, led by Amaou Koufa and active in the centre of the country, staged the kidnappings.
#Mali: Authorities released 180 jihadists prisoners, Malians mostly & Fulanis, in possible exchange for the release of Soumaila Cissé (possibly others). There are few known #JNIM figures released and will be interesting what are the other terms! #Sahel https://t.co/PRoGuGhFp7
— Rida Lyammouri (@rmaghrebi) October 5, 2020
Promise to secure Cisse's release
The release of prisoners is rare in Mali, which is struggling with an eight-year-old Islamist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and involved military interventions from countries like France.
There was no immediate comment late Sunday from Mali's transitional government, which was recently put in place more than a month after the country's democratically elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was ousted in a military coup.
The kidnapping of former opposition leader Soumalia Cissé was one of the factors that fuelled popular protests which led to the ouster of Keita over his perceived inability to tackle jihadists and Islamist insurgency.
Keita had officially opposed negotiations with jihadist groups but his government launched talks with some of them in February.
The military junta has not closed to the door to negotiations with jihadists and has vowed to secure Cisse’s release.
Cissé, a 70-year-old who has run for Mali's presidency three times, was campaigning ahead of legislative elections not far from Timbuktu at the time of his abduction.
His bodyguard was killed in the attack, and the only proof of life has been a handwritten letter delivered back in August.
Little is known about Cissé's conditions in captivity after the initial abduction, when assailants opened fire on his vehicle.
Uncertainty around Pétronin’s state of health
French aid worker Sophie Pétronin was abducted by gunmen on 24 December 2016, in the northern city of Gao.
She is currently the last French national held hostage in the world.
The last video in which she appeared dates from June 2018. Looking tired and thin she appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron.
In another video, in November 2018, in which she did not appear, her kidnappers said her state of health had deteriorated.
But in April 2020 her family issued a statement saying France had “reliable” recent proof she was still alive.
(with newswires)
