South African father kidnapped six years ago RELEASED

A South African father and paramedic who had been kidnapped by jihadists in Mali for over six years has been released.

SOUTH AFRICAN FATHER KIDNAPPED SIX YEARS AGO RLEASED

According to a report by AFP, security and humanitarian sources confirmed this on Sunday.

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Gerco van Deventer, 48, was kidnapped in Libya on November 3, 2017, on his way to a power plant construction site around 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) south of the capital Tripoli.

Gerco is an emergency paramedic who was working for a security company in Afghanistan then later moved to Libya.

According to his wife Shereen van Deventer, Gerco is the only South African citizen held hostage by a non-state actor in the Sahel.

In March 2023, a French hostage, journalist Olivier Dubois, said he had been living with Van Deventer for nearly two years. He said Gerco is still alive.

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Three other Turkish engineers seized at the same time were freed seven months later, but van Deventer remained in captivity and was moved to Mali.

GERCO VAN DEVENTER WAS KIDNAPPED IN 2017

“We learned that the South African hostage was released the day before yesterday,” a Malian security source told AFP.

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A foreign humanitarian source said that van Deventer was released on the border between Mali and Algeria, adding that she had briefly met the freed hostage at the border.

According to the AFP report the security source said van Deventer was currently under observation at a hospital in Algiers.

HIS FAMILY SAID THEY ARE OVERWHELMED

His wife Shereen van Deventer told AFP she did not wish to comment immediately, saying they were “a little overwhelmed as a family” by the news and the number of calls.

The two sources confirmed information given by an influential South African charity, Gift of the Givers, which was involved in mediation efforts for his release.

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