Al-Qaeda has a message for Macro on the eve of his visit to Mali

Periskopi

2 July 2017, 19:14(9 years ago)

A subsidiary of the Mountain-based al-Qaeda has released a video of six foreign hostages ahead of a planned visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to the country. They include an employee of French NGOs, an elderly Australian surgeon and a Colombian nun, the BBC writes. According to the video, no “negotiations [...]

A subsidiary of the Mountain-based al-Qaeda has released a video of six foreign hostages ahead of a planned visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to the country.

They include an employee of French NGOs, an elderly Australian surgeon and a Colombian nun, the BBC writes.

According to the video, there were no real “negotiations for their release.

Among the hostages looked at in the photograph is Sophie Petron, who was kidnapped last December in the town of Gao, where she led an NGO that helped the malnutrition children.

Macron is in the Mountain to consolidate Western support for a regional force against militants.

Speaking in the capital of Mali, Bamako, he said France and the “countries Sahel G5” Mountain, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger had to work together to eliminate “terrorists, bandits and assassins”.