"We can celebrate his release this evening."
It is with these words that Lionel Granouillac, nephew of Sophie Pétronin, confirmed this Tuesday, in the program C à vous (France 5) and on BFM TV, the release of his aunt, a French humanitarian kidnapped in Mali and detained in hostage since December 24, 2016.
The latter is on board a plane bound for Bamako alongside her son, Sébastien.
The AP agency also announced a few hours earlier that Sophie Pétronin was "free", but neither the French authorities nor the Malian government have yet confirmed the information.
Early this Tuesday morning, Sophie Pétronin's son, although extremely cautious, wanted to be optimistic.
“It smells good,” he confided, inviting us to the reserve.
He did not want to take any risk before finding his mother, whom he had not seen for almost four years.
Shortly after, he flew to Bamako.
It was there, after a handful of hours of waiting, that the reunion took place.
"It is a very great emotion that I feel," confides to Parisian Arnaud Granouillac, nephew of Sophie Pétronin.
It's the end of a long ordeal, especially for Sébastien ”.
After almost two months of silence, hope had returned to the members of his family for the first time at the end of March.
In full confinement, Sébastien Pétronin, who lives in the Jura, had been summoned by the French authorities so that he could go to the Quai d'Orsay.
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There, he had learned good news, after months of waiting.
The Quai d'Orsay crisis staff then certified him that the French state had proof of recent life of the French hostage, deemed reliable and dating from the beginning of March.
In a statement, relatives of the captive humanitarian had specified that they did not have additional information.
Disturbing videos
Before this rebound, the last proof of Sophie Pétronin's life dated from mid-June 2018. In a video, she appeared very tired, her face emaciated.
She then called for the intervention of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
In another video released seven months earlier, his captors announced that his health had deteriorated.
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In April 2019, in a column published in the Journal du Dimanche, Sébastien Pétronin accused France of having ruled out any idea of negotiations with the jihadists who then held his mother in Mali.
"My mother is sacrificed because we do not want to discuss, that's it," he wrote then.
Explained to him that he succeeded in 2018 in coming into contact with the kidnappers of Sophie Pétronin.
“In Mali and Mauritania, I had set up a communication channel with the jihadists, I had an intermediary.
They made me a novel proposal.
What they asked for in return for my mother was symbolic.
But I had to have the government's agreement to accept.
The Quai d'Orsay refused this proposal and did not wish to discuss with the jihadists, ”he detailed in December 2018 to Le Parisien.
More than a hundred jihadists released
This file ended up being settled.
Difficult, at this stage, to know the exact conditions of the release of the hostage.
This weekend, however, more than a hundred convicted or suspected jihadists were released in Mali.
A decision which presented as linked to the negotiations aiming to free Sophie Pétronin and Soumaïla Cissé, a former leader of the parliamentary opposition, who came second on three occasions in the Malian presidential election.
Aged 70, he was captured on March 25 while he was on a legislative campaign in the Timbuktu region.
"As part of negotiations to obtain the release of Soumaïla Cissé and Sophie Pétronin, more than a hundred jihadist prisoners were released this weekend on Malian territory," said on condition of anonymity an official of the mediation with AFP.
Information confirmed by an official of the Malian security services confirmed this information.
The prisoners were released in the Niono sector (center) and in the Tessalit region (north) to where they were flown, according to the latter.
Arnaud Granouillac also believes that the action of the Malians has helped to unblock the situation.
“Emmanuel Macron has always said that he would not negotiate with the jihadists.
It has not changed and it was the release of the hostages by the Malian authorities that made it possible to unblock things.
"