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| - An elderly French aid worker and a top Malian politician landed in the capital Bamako to an emotional reunion with their loved ones after being released from captivity by presumed jihadists. Mali announced the release of Frenchwoman Sophie Petronin, 75, and Malian politician Soumaila Cisse on Thursday, alongside two Italian nationals. French President Emmanuel Macron voiced "immense relief" at the release of Petronin, and tweeted Friday that he would welcome her back to France. Footage shared on social media showed a frail, white-robed Petronin -- who was the last French citizen held hostage in the world -- descending from a plane, to an emotional greeting from her son in Bamako. Cisse, 70, followed her and was also embraced by loved ones. In his tweet, Macron also expressed continued support for Mali in its fight against an Islamist insurgency. News of the hostages' release on Thursday came after the government released over 100 prisoners over the weekend, which sparked immediate speculation of a prisoner swap for Petronin and Cisse. In an unexpected development, the prime minister's office also announced Thursday that two Italian nationals named Nicola Chiacchio and Pier Luigi Maccalli had been freed. It was not immediately clear whether the two had arrived in Bamako on the same flight. Petronin was abducted by gunmen on December 24, 2016, in the northern city of Gao, where she worked for a children's charity. Cisse, a 70-year-old former opposition leader and three-time presidential candidate, was kidnapped on March 25 while campaigning in his home region of Niafounke, in central Mali, ahead of parliamentary elections. Maccalli, a priest, was abducted in neighbouring Niger in 2018. Chiacchio went missing in northern Mali in 2019 while on a solo bicycle trip, according to Italian media. Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio all hailed the release of the Italians who Di Maio said were well. Conte thanked the intelligence services and the foreign office. Mali's government on Thursday gave no indication of the circumstances of the hostages' release, nor did it provide information on their health. There were concerns about Petronin's welfare while in captivity, however. She had appeared in two videos broadcast by the jihadist outfit GSIM. The last video in 2018 showed her looking emaciated and fatigued, and triggered alarm among her family members who pressured Macron to negotiate with her captors. France's president several times said his services were working "tirelessly" for her release. "To her family, to her loved ones, I send a message of sympathy," Macron tweeted on Thursday. "To the Malian authorities, thank you. The fight against terrorism in the Sahel continues". Mali's former colonial power France has 5,100 soldiers deployed across the Sahel as part of its anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane. After first emerging in northern Mali in 2012, a brutal jihadist insurgency has spread to the centre of the country as well as Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Kidnappings are also common. One of the hostage negotiators, who requested anonymity, told AFP that the talks remained difficult up to the end. On Thursday, Mali's prime minister's office said the four hostages had been held by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM). The alliance comprises several jihadist groups aligned to al-Qaeda, and has claimed responsibility for some of the biggest attacks in the Sahel. Mali released over 100 prisoners to the volatile centre of the country over the weekend, and in the northern town of Tessalit, a security official told AFP this week. Malian officials who requested anonymity cast the prisoners as jihadists. The rare mass release sparked immediate speculation on social media of an exchange. Both the Malian and French governments declined to comment over the following days. There had been little or no speculation about the release of the Italian hostages, however, whose freedom came as a surprise. The prisoner release came with an interim government due to govern Mali for 18 months before staging elections after a military junta overthrew president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August. The kidnapping of former opposition leader Cisse was one of the factors that fuelled popular protests which led to the ouster of Keita over his perceived inability to crush the Islamist insurgency. The intermediary involved in the negotiations told AFP on Thursday that releasing the prisoners was necessary. "Yes, terrorists were released," he said. "We had to obtain the release," he added. Several other hostages remain detained by militant groups in the Sahel. sd/eml/lc/rbu
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