A Spanish man who was kidnapped last week near the Algeria-Mali border has landed near Algiers en route home, the defence ministry said Tuesday.
The Spaniard landed at the Boufarik military base, south of the capital on a flight from Algeria’s southernmost Tin Zaoutine commune.
He was on a tourist trip when he was “kidnapped near the Algerian-Malian border on January 14 … by an armed group made up of five people”, a ministry statement said.
The Spaniard was in “good health” and would be “handed over to the Spanish authorities”, the ministry added.
He was named as Navaro Canada Joaquim by the ministry and Gilbert Navarro by the Algerian presidency.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune thanked the security services and defence ministry officials for “demonstrating effectiveness and discretion in the operation to free the Spanish national”.
Separatist rebels in northern Mali said he was released Monday following their intervention and spent the night under their protection.
The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a coalition of separatist rebel groups, said the Spaniard had been freed “thanks to an operation carried out by one of its security units, together with negotiations conducted by individuals of goodwill”.
The FLA is an alliance of predominantly Tuareg rebel groups battling the Malian state.
‘Organised crime network’Â
The Spaniard was kidnapped on January 14 in southern Algeria and taken to northern Mali by “kidnappers affiliated to an organised crime network operating in the Sahel and beyond,” the FLA statement said.
The rebels said he had “made contact with his family” before being handed over to the Algerian authorities.
Madrid on Friday said that a Spanish man had been kidnapped in North Africa in unclear circumstances, without giving further details.
Algeria and Mali share a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border stretching across a vast desert area which is difficult to monitor.
The volatile border region plays host to Tuareg rebel groups and the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
The Islamic State group is also active in the Menaka region.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
Mali has been embroiled in a political, security and economic crisis since 2012.
Kidnappings are not uncommon in the restive Sahel region of North Africa, where motives range from ransom demands to acts of retaliation, with hostages commonly transported from one country to another.
In mid-January, the foreign ministry in Vienna said that an Austrian woman had been kidnapped in northern Niger, which also shares a border with Mali.
