Africa

"The good news finally fell yesterday", poster in large letters on the front of L'Indépendant, the Malian daily. "Soumaïla Cissé and other Western hostages, including the French Sophie Petronin, are free," we read."It is now confirmed and official," the article insists. "After more than six months in captivity or more than 190 days, the leader of the opposition was released yesterday, Thursday 8 October." He was in the…

The release of Sophie Pétronin and Soumaïla Cissé completes an operation whose underside remains unclear. Prior to the release on the weekend of October 3 and 4, by the new Malian authorities, a significant number of prisoners - more than 200 years old, according to an al-Qaeda news agency - were presented by Malian officials as well as jihadists. Was the release of the jihadists as a bargaining chip…

Sophie Pétronin, a French aid worker who was the last French hostage in the world, landed in the capital Bamako to have an emotional reunion with her son after being released along with a top Malian politician. Mali announced the release of Frenchwoman Sophie Pétronin, 75, and Malian politician Soumaïla Cisséon on Thursday along…

In the Comoros, a new "common front of the living forces" is being created, uniting the opposition union and all civil society movements in the archipelago as in the diaspora, condemning a constitutional coup by President Azali Assoumani. With our Moroni correspondent, Anziza M'Changama If he had not amended the Constitution, his mandate would end in a few months to make room for a president from the island of Anjouan in 2021. This is also one of the demands of this common front, which gave a press conference Thursday…

The president of the Intersyndicale du Center hospitalier universitaire (CHU) de Brazzaville, who has long condemned the poor management of the Canadian management of this company, was fired as an agent. A decision poorly digested by his colleagues who demand his recovery and threaten to strike. From our correspondent in Brazzaville, According to the dismissal note signed by the new Director General of the CHU, Denis Bernard Raiche, Victor Bienvenu Kouama is accused in particular of making insulting remarks and making…

Weighted by the economic downturn from the Covid-19 pandemic, growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to fall to -3.3% by 2020, dragging the region into its first economic recession in 25 years, according to the latest regional economic analysis ”, Produced by the World Bank. The pandemic also risks pushing 40 million Africans into extreme poverty and erasing at least five years of progress in the fight against poverty. It is a relaxing figure: 40 million Africans are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, about three…

Sophie Pétronin and Soumaïla Cissé arrived in Bamako around noon. 22 local time. The aid worker and politician were released after four years and six months in captivity, respectively. When the Malian army plane arrived from Tessalit in Bamako, the joy and relief was enormous among relatives of the ex-hostages. it is the end of an infinite waiting time several days of excitement, four years of ordeal for the French humanitarian family and more than six months of torment for those close to Soumaïla Cisse, the leader of the…

The president of the URD and leader of the Malian opposition, Soumaïla Cissé, was released on Thursday, October 8, 2020. He has been in captivity since his March 25 kidnapping in northern Mali while in the countryside for the legislative elections. He was in the middle of an election campaign near Niafunké, in the Timbuktu region, his stronghold. Four days before the legislative election, Soumaïla Cissé and her delegation, about ten people, left Saraféré for Koumaïra, but they never made it. Armed men attack the…

Auxiliary worker Sophie Pétronin was released on Thursday, October 8th. An event that puts an end to almost four years of captivity. Sophie Petronin had already narrowly escaped the kidnapping of terrorists in 2012. Previously, the French woman had worked since 2001 in favor of orphaned and malnourished children in Gao. In 2012, she was able to leave the Algerian consulate, where she had sought refuge, at the last minute and be filtered out of the country in disguise before the jihadists took control of the area. The…

Prominent Malian politician Soumaila Cissé, who was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in March, was released on Wednesday after Mali released over 100 alleged or convicted jihadists as part of negotiations to secure his release. Mali also released the prisoners in hopes of getting the release of abducted French aid worker Sophie Pétronin, who was kidnapped by the shooter in December 2016 in the northern city of Gao. "As part of the negotiations for the release of Soumaila Cisséand Sophie Pétronin, more than a hundred…