This just popped up in the Moroccan media.

https://fr.le360.ma/politique/sahel-...rocains-271921

Jorge Lange released in Mali

Most of Chad's border regions are rather sketchy from a security perspective. The Lake Chad area got a bunch of headlines semi-recently, but all of their borders have been porous and unstable for a long time. For example, in the northwest, the Tibesti region has had security problems for many years, and the gold mining has only made it worse. Keep in mind that's where the (now dead, former) president was fighting rebels. Also, Faya area (in the north) has a thriving smuggling industry from Libya. Its fairly normal to see lots of relatively new, expensive Toyotas driving around with Libyan tags.

Great news for Jorge Lange.

Afaik, Other known western captives include:

• Romanian mining engineer Julian Ghergut, Burkina 2015
• Italian family, Mali 2022
• German missionary Hans-Joachim Lohre, Bamako 2022

Updated summer 2023 but still about as short as the list has been for 20 years.

Yeh but they have no problem finding replacements
https://www.aciafrica.org/tag/fr-hans-joachim-lohre
abducted from his home in eastern Bamako Nov 22
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/01/1132802
Abducted near Menaka Jan 25

Makes for an interesting reading.

Iyad Ag Ghaly meets the signatory groups of the peace agreement near Kidal. According to these sources, Iyad Ag Ghaly first asked the armed groups that signed the 2015 peace agreement to concentrate their efforts against the rival jihadist group, the Sahelian branch of the Islamic State group

https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/202301...3%A8s-de-kidal

Also this:

https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/202301...de-m%C3%A9naka

Jeffery Woodke and Olivier Dubois freed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65017545

Dr Kenneth Elliott, the 88 year old Australian taken in 2016 near the Mali - Burkina Faso border, has been freed.

Wow. That is amazing, the best piece of news from the region for a long time.

Kidnapped in Djibo in 2016. Seven years! At his age.

Interview with Jeffrey Woodke
 

Romanian citizen Iulian Ghergut, who was kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2015 by a jihadist group, returned home yesterday according to Morocco World News.

Good news. With Iulian Ghergut's release that means all western hostages of many years captivity have been freed and the list is as short as it's ever been.

The only current captives are from 2022: a missionary grabbed in Bamako last November, and an Italian family of Jehovahs from southeastern Mali.
Hopefully it won't be 8 years for them.

https://sahara-overland.com/kidnappings/

Thank you for keeping that Website updated!

Surfy

Gerco van Deventer released
 

Gerco van Deventer, who was taken hostage in Libya in 2017 and who is believed to have been held in Mali, has just been released after 6 years in captivity. The initial price of freedom was quoted at $3 million but that was negotiated down to $500 000. Release in Mali and then Mauri proved difficult. Reports are that Algeria emerged as the country from which he was released.

Good news, though actually it is claimed he was released 'unconditionally' which would be a first for AQIM/JNIM.

I'm also told the German priest Hans-Joachim Lohre who was kidnapped in Bamako last year was released last month:
https://www.foxnews.com/world/german...d-captors-mali

Which means for the first time since it all started in 2003 there are currently no known captives who were kidnapped for ransom in the Sahara.

and locally...
 

Anyone know.....


With respect to all of the insecurity how has that impacted cross border traffic? Are trucks still running between say Algeria and Niger? Has public transport ( as much as it is) still continued to run?


This is prompted by sheer curiosity and looking at pics of a friend on board a truck years back going from Agadez to Tamanrasset.



Mike