American nun released in Niger: “President Bazoum’s strategy is bearing fruit”

Published on: 06/09/2022 – 17:48 An 83-year-old American nun, kidnapped in April by jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, was released at the end of August in Niger. The sign that the negotiations started by President Mohamed Bazoum with the jihadists are bearing fruit. “It is with great joy and gratitude to God that we inform everyone that Sister Suellen Tennyson, the nun kidnapped in Yalgo on the night of Monday April 4 to Tuesday April 5, has been released by her captors”, indicated , Wednesday August 31, the press release signed by Mgr Théophile Naré, the bishop of Kaya, in Burkina Faso. In this same press release, he affirmed not to have “information on the conditions of his release” but expressed his “deep gratitude to all those who worked there”.>> To see: Sahel: the countries of the region facing the jihadist threat”We know today that there was no military operation to exfiltrate it and that there was no ransom,” said jihadist specialist Wassim Nasr on France 24 on Tuesday, September 6. “A Nigerien team from the office of the President of the Republic was dispatched to Burkina (Faso ) to receive the hostage and take him to Niger, where US special forces sent a medical helicopter repatriated,” he said. The President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, began a four-pronged strategy several months ago to pacify Niger, including a political component consisting of negotiating with the jihadists.” An initiative received favorably by the jihadists “This release is a first proof that this strategy is bearing fruit”, according to Wassim Nasr. “His initiative was received favorably by the new command of AQIM in Burkina Faso and Mali.” she was abducted in the middle of the night. Yalgo is located between Kaya and Dori, two large towns in northern Burkina Faso, a region that has been plagued by regular jihadist attacks for seven years. Like its neighbors Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso is caught since 2015 in a spiral of violence attributed to armed jihadist movements, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, which have left several thousand dead and nearly two million displaced. With AFP