Rebel alliance in Mali says it has freed a Spanish man who was kidnapped in Algeria

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A rebel alliance in Mali said Tuesday it has freed a Spanish man who was kidnapped in southern Algeria last week.

The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a coalition of separatist armed groups in Mali’s predominately Tuareg north, said on the social media platform X that it freed Spanish citizen Gilbert Navarro.

“The former Spanish hostage, Mr. Navarro Giane Gilbert, has been released by the FLA and is in good health,” said Mohamed Maouloud Ramaadan, spokesperson for the separatist movement.

Boubacar Sadigh Ould Taleb, the Azawad Liberation Front’s communications officer, told The Associated Press that Navarro was kidnapped on Jan. 17 by a “transnational mafia,” without identifying the group.

Taleb said armed men from the Azawad Liberation Front located Navarro and his kidnappers near the town of Indelimane in Mali’s eastern region of Menaka. After surrounding the kidnappers, the rebel fighters were able to negotiate the Spanish man’s release on Monday, he said.

“The former hostage will be handed over to the Algerian authorities very soon so that he can be reunited with his family,” Taleb said.

Spain’s Foreign Ministry said last week that a Spanish man had been kidnapped in an unspecified northern African country. Spanish media reported that the man was captured in southern Algeria and taken to Mali by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.

The Foreign Ministry would not confirm the media reports or reveal the location of the kidnapping.

Algerian authorities have not commented on the abduction. Kidnappings have rarely been reported in Algeria in recent years, but a decade ago, militant groups in the region routinely used ransom kidnappings to finance their operations.

Earlier this month, Austria’s Foreign Ministry said unidentified gunmen had kidnapped an Austrian aid worker in Agadez, Niger, roughly 280 miles (450 kilometers) from the largely porous border with Algeria. The ministry said it had informed Algeria.

Algeria, Africa’s largest country by area, has worked to clamp down on instability and terrorism in the vast Sahara, but the Spanish man’s kidnapping came months after a Swiss tourist traveling in the desert was killed.