Jihadists in Mali have freed, Soumaïla Cissé, a prominent opposition leader kidnapped earlier this year and a French aid worker held captive for almost four years, in a major exchange of prisoners with the country’s new transition government.

Cissé, a former presidential candidate, was kidnapped in March while campaigning in his home town in the restive north of the country.

Sophie Pétronin, thought to be the only French citizen held hostage in the world, ran a Swiss charity for malnourished children and orphans before she was abducted on Christmas Eve in December 2016, in the northern city of Gao.

Deborah Amuwo reports.