APA – Bamako (Mali) – The soldiers were captured by militants at the end of February.
The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main al-Qaeda affiliate, has released a propaganda video showing two Malian soldiers taken hostage during the deadly attack on their camp in the Koulikoro region, pleading for intervention by the authorities to secure their freedom.
In the video, the hostages appealed to the military hierarchy, the highest authorities and all people of goodwill to intervene on their behalf. They said they were being treated well and insisted that their captors were demanding a prisoner swap.
“We ask our superiors, the government and all people of goodwill to do everything possible to free us. We are being treated well, but we want our freedom to go back to our families,” one of them said.
The raid took place in the early hours of 28 February. The army confirmed the attack in a statement, saying it had targeted “units of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) in charge of securing work on the Kwala-Mourdiah-Nara road.”
Our source added that the FAMa “located and destroyed several of the terrorists” as they tried to retreat.
However, he declined to give an assessment.
According to the hostages, their captors want an exchange of prisoners.
One of them even alluded to the war between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas in Gaza to suggest that prisoner swaps are nothing new between hostile forces.
In the past, the Malian authorities have used similar tactics to secure the release of military and civilian hostages.
MD/te/lb/as/APA