Humanitarian organisation, Gift of the Givers, said its hostage negotiator landed in Mali on Sunday morning to assist in arranging for the safe release of a South African national from Swellendam.
Paramedic Gerco van Deventer has been held hostage for just under six years after initially being kidnapped a few days after his arrival in November 2017.
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.
Also read: Gift of the Givers return to SA after assisting with rescue efforts in Türkiye
According to earlier reports, a video of van Deventer was released last month in which he reportedly said that he was the only South African being held by a splinter Al-Qaeda group in Mali after he was sold to them eight months after being kidnapped.
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His family recently received information that he had been sold and was now being held in Mali, as reported by EWN. Further reports from French hostage, journalist Olivier Dubois, who had been living with van Deventer for nearly two years, confirmed that he was still alive.
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.
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).
He added that there is hope that the month of Ramadan will soften van Deventer’s captors, making them open to negotiating an unconditional release.
Videos of van Deventer’s wife and son pleading for his release have also been sent on to the intermediaries communicating with the organisation.
Gift of the Givers had previously assisted in several other hostage negotiations, including the release of Stephen McGown, who is considered to have been Al-Qaeda’s longest-held prisoner.
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Picture: @Mzahem_Alsaloum / Twitter
