After 25 days of captivity in Mali, a plastic surgeon of Thai nationality was released against payment of a ransom.
The plastic surgeon and YouTuber, Dr. Nopparat Rattananawaraha was kidnapped in the Malian town of Kemparana, in the circle of San, near the border with Burkina Faso.
According to the Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman, Dr Rattanawaraha was released after paying a ransom of 5.5 million baht ($150,000).
While no group has claimed responsibility for his abduction, the region where he was kidnapped is the zone of influence of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), close to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Recall that last April in the north of Burkina Faso, an American nun was freed and recovered in Niger by the armed forces of her country.
For more than a decade, the central Sahel, comprising Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, has been the scene of an insurrection linked to the activity of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. This security crisis has caused the death of several thousand people and the displacement of millions more.
