French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday welcomed the release and soon-to-return to France of a humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped and held in captivity by militants in Mali for almost four years. Sophie Petronin was abducted by a group of armed militants in December 2016 in the northeastern Malian city of Gao. She spent 1,381 days in extremists’ custody. Petronin has been known as the last French hostage in the world. “I just exchanged...

The newly appointed President of Mali’s Transition government, Bah N’daw, has commended the mediator for Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan for the role he played in restoring normalcy in the country, following a political crisis in the country. N’Daw during his inauguration on Friday said this in Bamako, despite the ECOWAS indication that it would only lift sanctions on Mali after a new Prime Minister had...

The Nigeria Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, who is currently mediating in the Mali crisis for the West Africa bloc, ECOWAS, has said the organization would probably decide on Friday whether it would lift the economic sanction imposed on Mali. Jonathan said this while speaking in the capital of Mali, Bamako on Wednesday. He also described the measure imposition on the country by the 15-nation bloc “unfortunate.” West African leaders have been putting pressure on Mali’s...