A Thai plastic surgeon who spent 25 days in captivity in Mali has been freed after a ransom was paid for his release.
Nopparat Rattananawaraha, a plastic surgeon and YouTube host was kidnapped in the Malian town of Kemparana, in the San circle, near the border with Burkina Faso.
According to the Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman, Dr Rattanawaraha was released after paying a ransom of 5.5 million baht ($150,000).
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping but the area where he was abducted is under the influence of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), which is close to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The famous Youtubeur arrived in Mali on 28 September and had not been heard from since.
His family had contacted the Thai embassy in Dakar, Senegal in a bid to trace him.
On his Instagram account, the surgeon, who posted several photos of himself in Burkina Faso, also apologised to his community.
He says he is safe but did not respond when contacted by APA.
An American nun kidnapped in April in northern Burkina Faso was released and recovered in Niger by her country’s armed forces.
For more than a decade, the central Sahel region of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has witnessed an insurgency linked to the activity of jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.
This security crisis has caused the death of several thousand people and the displacement of millions more.
AC/te/lb/as/APA