AOMAR OUALI
Associated Press
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria’s state news agency says two Algerian diplomats taken hostage in northern Mali more than two years ago have been released.
The APS agency quotes an Algerian foreign affairs ministry statement Saturday, which confirms that diplomats Mourad Guessas and Kedour Miloudi, abducted by jihadists on April 6, 2012, in Gao, have been freed following “discreet” government intervention.
It says that no ransom was given and doesn’t say when the release took place.
The two were among several Algerian diplomats kidnapped by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), following the eruption of chaos in northern Mali.
The statement adds that that a third hostage, Consul General Boualem Saies, died following an unspecified chronic illness.
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