An al Qaeda affiliate based in Mali has released a video of elderly French aid worker Sophie Petronin, who was kidnapped in late 2016.

Petronin ran a charity for malnourished and orphan children and had lived in the city of Gao, in Mali’s volatile northeast, for 15 years when she was snatched and driven away in a pickup truck.

The propaganda video was released late on Thursday by the media wing of Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), which has been linked to the kidnapping of at least six Western hostages in recent years.

It shows brief footage of Petronin, 72, lying on a cot inside a tent and boxes of medication, while audio of French President Emmanuel Macron saying“I will protect you” plays on a loop. It was not clear when the footage of Petronin was filmed.

Petronin’s nephew, Arnaud Granouillac, said his aunt’s health appeared to have deteriorated since the last images of her were released in the summer, and accused the French government of abandoning the family.

“She’s exhausted,” Granouillac told BFM TV.“Since the day she was kidnapped, we’ve been on our own. I hope President Emmanuel Macron sees this video and realizes we have to get my aunt out of there.”

 

Source:  Reuters