Picture supply, Present of the Givers/Fb
Militant Islamists linked to al-Qaeda have freed a South African paramedic taken hostage in Libya greater than six years in the past, a charity has stated.
Present of the Givers stated it had facilitated the “unconditional” launch of Gerco van Deventer.
The charity described Van Deventer because the longest-held South African hostage.
He was seized by an unnamed group in Libya in 2017, offered to militant Islamists in Mali a yr later, and launched “into” Algeria, it added.
A Malian safety supply confirmed to AFP information company that Van Deventer, 48, had been freed.
It quoted a humanitarian supply as saying that the paramedic was freed on the border between Mali and Algeria.
Giant components of Libya have been lawless since Nato-backed forces overthrew and killed long-serving ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, whereas Mali is battling an Islamist insurgency and a rise up by separatist forces within the north.
Present of the Givers, a South Africa-based charity, stated that Algeria’s safety companies had taken Van Deventer to hospital for a check-up following his launch.
“We await the following step on his well being and preparations to deliver him dwelling to be reunited with spouse Shereen and son Asher. It has been six agonising years of prayer, endurance, and hope,” the charity stated in a Fb publish.
Van Deventer was an emergency paramedic who was working for a safety firm when he was seized on 3 November 2017, whereas on his strategy to an influence plant development web site round 1,000km (600 miles) south of Libya’s capital Tripoli.
Three Turkish engineers who have been kidnapped with him have been freed about seven months later, however he remained in captivity.
In March his household made a contemporary plea for his launch.
Present of the Givers has been concerned in earlier efforts to free Van Deventer and different hostages held within the Sahel area.
The charity stated the al-Qaeda affiliate, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, had requested for a ransom of $3m (£2.4m) in 2018, and the charity negotiated the quantity right down to $500,000.
Nevertheless, Van Deventer’s household and employer couldn’t afford the quantity, and the militants lastly launched him “unconditionally” on Saturday, it added.
Al-Qaeda within the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and different extremist teams in North and West Africa have lengthy used kidnapping for ransom as a means of elevating cash.
The group, which has its roots in Algeria’s bitter civil struggle within the Nineties, operates throughout the Sahel area south of the Sahara Desert and inside Mali and Burkina Faso.
In 2013, former colonial energy France despatched 5,000 troops to Mali to struggle the group and its allies, and in 2020 killed AQIM chief Abdelmalek Droukdel.
However France pulled out final yr following a coup within the West African state, and rising unpopularity over its navy operation.
Now Russia’s infamous mercenary Wagner group has been employed by Mali’s navy junta to struggle the militants.
