He regained his freedom on Friday. Gerco van Deventer, a South African nurse now aged 48, was kidnapped by jihadists in Libya in 2017 and then transferred to Mali. He was released at the border between Mali and Algeria and is now in Algiers, AFP learned this Sunday from security and humanitarian sources.
The two sources, one from Malian security and the other from a foreign humanitarian organization, confirmed information given on Sunday by a South African humanitarian organization, Gift of the Givers, which acted in the release as facilitator.
“Under observation in a hospital”
Gerco van Deventer, who worked for a security company, was kidnapped in Libya on November 3, 2017 while traveling to a power plant construction site about 1,000 km from Tripoli. He was then transferred to Mali.
The forty-year-old “is currently under observation in a hospital in Algiers,” the security source told AFP. The humanitarian source, for his part, indicated that he “quickly met” the ex-hostage at the Algerian border, without specifying a date.
Since 2012, Mali has been plagued by a spread of jihadism and violence of all kinds, of which kidnappings, whether of foreigners or Malians, constitute one aspect. The motivations are ideological or villainous.