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Africa North

South African paramedic Gerco van Deventer, hostage in the Sahel since 2017, freed

2023-12-19

[AFRICANEWS] South African Gerco van Deventer who was kidnapped in Libya in November 2017 is now free. NGO Gift of the Givers made the announcement on Sunday (Dec. 17).

The longest held South African hostage in captivity was sold to al-Qaeda in Mali in 2018 after his abduction.

In a lengthy news release, the organization detailed the process that led to the unconditional liberation of the forty-seven-year-old paramedic who is reportedly in Algeria.

Gift of the Givers said that at the request of the van Deventer's family, the organization "got involved in 2018, contacted JNIM (Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Moslemin)".

JNIM is the local branch of al-Qaeda in the Sahel, a subset of Al Qaeda in North Africa.

The initial request for Gerco's release "was 3 million USD, and over a period of time we negotiated the amount down to 500k USD," the NGO writes.

"The family could not afford the ransom, there was no benefactor, the company that Gerco had just commenced work for could not assist."

Negotiations stalled and eventually with Covid-19 went cold completely until January 2023.

In Ramadan, the month of fasting for Moslems, of this year, Gift of the Givers "requested unconditional, ransom free release" of the paramedic.

"Letters from religious leaders were forwarded to support [their] request."

"Then came the Morocco Earthquake, we offered assistance, but it was not required, however, it drew a response from the captors who have links with Morocco, and through the intermediaries we received an indirect message of appreciation. We used that moment to request unconditional release once again. Then with our intervention in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, one of the chief intermediaries in Mali with whom we have a relationship since 2015 requested the video messages from the family, the public and the private ones. The request came on 16 November, several hours after Gift of the Givers office head in Gaza, Ahmed Abbasi,

...in Gaza? And Mr. van Deventer was being held by Al Qaeda in Mali? Fascinating,,,

was directly targeted and murdered by Israeli Occupation Forces [...]," the organization recounted on a Facebook post.

"On 5 December we received a call from someone in Mauritania who said they are working on the release" and eventually on December 26, one of the group's "very trusted intermediaries" told them "that Gerco had been released into Algeria."

The organization Gift of the Givers says no ransom was paid.

Posted by:Fred

#1 Given the global changes since Nov 2017 he may take one look and ask to return.

Posted by: Cesare 2023-12-19 07:16

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