Kidnappers release an Algerian diplomat's wife in Gao

Mali kidnappers, belonging to the terrorist group, which targeted the Algerian consulate in Gao, released on Friday the wife of an Algerian diplomat working in the consulate, informed sources told Echorouk.

The wife of “T.Tahar” 32 , who works as a diplomatic attaché in Algeria’s consulate in Gao, descended from the Massad in Djelfa (west of Algeria).

Echorouk sources added that the woman was released near Gao, then she went to Mali capital Bamako in order to join her son, who was in the capital before the kidnap.

The same sources spoke about the release of another Malian woman who works in the same consulate.

Reports are conflicting about the kidnappers that carried out the attack on the consulate, at a time security services point to a group of Arabs of Niger, specialized in smuggling and associated to a leader of a terrorist group called “Abu Zeid”, as local source speak about the intensive presence of the Tawhid and Jihad group in Gao, a new splinter group in conflict with “Al Qaeda” due to a war of leadership in the desert. 

Waiting for a statement from the party that carried out the attack against the Algerian consulate in Gao, Echorouk sources confirmed that the kidnappers still kidnap seven Algerian diplomats including the Consul Sais Boualem.