Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez had been held by an al-Qaeda-linked group from February 2017 to her launch on October 9.
A Colombian nun who was kidnapped and held by armed teams in Mali for greater than 4 years has returned dwelling.
Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, 59, was greeted by a dozen fellow nuns, singing “welcome, welcome, our coronary heart welcomes you”, as she arrived at Bogota airport on Tuesday.
She had been taken hostage on February 7, 2017, in southern Mali close to the border with Burkina Faso, the place she had been working as a missionary. In a letter final yr, she stated she had been taken hostage by the al-Qaeda-linked Group to Help Islam and Muslims (GSIM).
She was freed on October 9 following a joint effort by the governments of Mali and Colombia.
Whereas particulars of how her launch was secured stay unclear, the Colombian police had beforehand stated the group that kidnapped her had demanded a ransom.
“The Lord gave me the enjoyment of getting brothers and sisters,” she stated after hugging the ready nuns. “I thanks with all my coronary heart.”
In Bogata, Narvaez stated she tried to persuade those that held her in captivity to free different hostages nonetheless being held. She additionally spoke out about victims of abduction in her homeland, which was itself affected by kidnappings in a battle that lasted greater than half a century.
“I used to be pondering of all of the struggling that folks undergo when they’re kidnapped proper right here in Colombia, in the entire world, there in Mali, how many individuals are left,” stated the nun, whose mom died in September 2020, awaiting the discharge of her daughter.
On the airport, Colonel Gustavo Camargo, deputy director of the anti-kidnapping police who had gone to Mali to press for her launch, informed the nun: “Your energy amazes me.”
Kidnappings have grown more and more frequent in Mali lately, significantly within the nation’s huge northern and central areas, the place armed teams have proliferated since 2012 by feeding off of financial insecurity, dwindling pure sources, and pre-existing sectarian tensions.
A number of Westerners stay within the palms of armed teams within the nation, a lot of which have pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda or ISIL (ISIS). These embody an American clergyman kidnapped in Niger and a French journalist kidnapped in northeastern Mali in April.
Earlier than returning to Colombia, Narvaez travelled to the Vatican to fulfill Pope Francis.