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28 March 2024

Algeria says kidnapped diplomats are doing well

Published

Seven Algerian diplomats kidnapped in Gao in northeastern Mali are in good health during their ongoing ordeal, Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said Monday.

The Algerian consul and six colleagues were seized April 5 and taken to an unknown destination in a brazen kidnapping claimed by Al-Qaeda dissident group, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa.

"The information we've received shows the Algerian hostages are doing well," Medelci told state-run news agency APS.

He said Algerian authorities were in contact with kidnappers and were monitoring the health of the hostages.

"We expect this will soon bear fruit," he said.

The diplomats' families were repatriated to Algeria after the kidnappings, which Algeria has strongly condemned.

Militant fighters and Tuareg rebels seized Mali's vast north in the days following a coup in the capital Bamako.