French ex-hostage Sophie Pétronin has returned to Mali with her son only four years after her release.
Pétronin, a humanitarian activist, was freed in October 2020 as part of a prisoner swap for almost 200 jihadists. Since then, she had been living in Switzerland.
She had been held captive by jihadists in Mali since her abduction on Christmas Eve in 2016.
Pétronin had always said she planned to return to Mali to continue her work.
They believe she has returned to an area described as very dangerous.
Malian authorities have issued a wanted notice.
Mali’s police force said Ms Pétronin was reportedly in the Sikasso area, close to Mali’s south-eastern border with Burkina Faso.
French sources have said that they are not interpreting the wanted notice as a “hostile act” from the Malian authorities.
Malian and international armed forces have been struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency in the north of country that first emerged in 2012.
Who is Sophie Pétronin?
Pétronin has been working on helping orphans and other children suffering from malnutrition.
She had been running Swiss charity Association Aid to Gao since 2004. She was also an expert in guinea-worm disease, which spread through contaminated water in northern Mali.
When Tuareg rebels, backed by Islamists, seized Gao as unrest spread in Mali in 2012, seven Algerian diplomats were abducted and the Algerian consul gave her protection until the building came under attack. She fled through a back door and left Mali into Algeria wearing long robes.
“We crossed the desert in just one night, when normally it takes two days,” she told Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper in May 2012. “I checked the speedometer, we were going at 130km/h (80mph).
