A hostage release is never a simple exercise, nor a coincidence.
These are slow negotiations, rarely certain.
The operation which enabled Franco-Swiss Sophie Pétronin, former Malian minister Soumaïla Cissé and two Italians, missionary Pier Luigi Maccalli and tourist Nicola Chiacchio, is no exception to this rule.
As always, it provoked strong political repercussions, both in Mali and in France.
In Bamako, the return of Soumaïla Cissé, a leading personality, is a masterstroke for the new government and the soldiers who have just taken the reins of the country.
For Paris, which stands on a hard line vis-à-vis an Islamist insurgency, the outcome is more ambiguous.
Because the cost of these releases is high.
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The captives would have been exchanged for at least 200 jihadists imprisoned in Mali, some simple defendants and others already on trial.
On social networks, relatives of Jamaat Nosra al-Islam wal-Mouslimin, the Group
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