A Colombian Franciscan nun, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, kidnapped in February 2017 by jihadists in Mali, was released. This was announced by the Malian presidency in a statement. Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti was kidnapped on February 7, 2017 in Karangasso in southern Mali near the border with Burkina Faso.
The Colombian nun of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate had been kidnapped in Karangasso and had been a prisoner for a long time together with the Italian priest Father Pierluigi Maccalli and the Italian entrepreneur Nicola Chiacchio, freed a year ago. This is also why the Vatican had asked our services for help to get her back, as soon as possible and in good health, to Rome. The last sign that he was still alive came in May, with a letter delivered to his brother in Colombia, which the nun had written in February.
In July 2017 she appeared along with five other hostages in a video released by al Qaeda on Telegram. In January 2018, another video was released on the Internet in which the nun asked Pope Francis for help in his release. In Karangasso, where she was kidnapped, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti was in charge of a mission with a health center, an orphanage and a center for women’s literacy and children’s catechesis.
According to the Malian presidency, the release is “the culmination of 4 years and 8 months of joint efforts by various intelligence services”. The president of the Transition in Mali, Colonel Assimi Goita, assures that “efforts are underway” to free all the kidnapped in Mali. The release of the Colombian nun was confirmed to AFP by the archbishop of Bamako, Monsignor Jean Zerbo, who assured that the nun “is well”.