Nearly six years after her husband’s kidnapping, the wife of a South African paramedic remains hopeful that the couple will be reunited soon following a proof of life video released by the kidnappers.
Also read: Thousands gather during iftar in support of WC hostage
Gerco van Deventer was abducted in 2017 while working as a paramedic in Libya, and the Gift of the Givers has been trying to secure his release.
Subsequent to his kidnapping, Gerco was sold to another terrorist group and is now reportedly in Mali, where he is allegedly being held by a group with links to al-Qaeda.
According to his wife, Shereen, it was bittersweet seeing the new video, and she hopes to have Gerco home soon.
‘It’s a shock because he doesn’t look the same,’ she told the SABC. ‘In my mind he’s still the man I kissed goodbye at the airport and that’s how I remember him.’
‘Not as he was in the video. The videos just don’t do him justice. That makes you realise the circumstances he’s in and the conditions he might be living under. And that worries you, it worries you a lot.’
Van Deventer was on his way to the Awbari power plant in Libya, where he worked as an on-site medical practitioner, when he was kidnapped alongside three Turkish men who were released seven months later.
The Gift of the Givers has been involved in negotiating van Deventer’s release since the beginning of 2019. Negotiations, however, came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters.
Last week, the organisation’s founder, Dr Imtiaaz Sooliman, said, ‘We have decided to go back. My intermediary [Yahya Dicko] is actually in Mali. He landed there on Sunday morning. He’s already spoken to people we’ve dealt with before’.
Sooliman told News24 that the lack of money to pay the ransom for van Deventer’s release also delayed the negotiations. The ransom currently stands at $500 000 (R11.4 million).
Also read:
Gift of the Givers lands in Mali to negotiate release of WC hostage
Picture: @Mzahem_Alsaloum / Twitter