Abducted Canadian and Italian turn up safe in Mali
A Canadian woman and an Italian man kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2018 are said to be in good health and spirits after arriving in neighbouring Mali.
Édith Blais and Luca Tacchetto, both in their 30s, apparently escaped and were picked up by UN forces before being used in Mali's capital, Bamako.
They appeared bemused when officials greeted them with elbows, prior to the pair were told of new social etiquette measures to greatly help curb coronavirus.
Mali said no ransom have been paid.
None of the many jihadist groups in your community has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
Plans are now made to repatriate the couple.
In a statement, Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne said that "Canada is very relieved" that the pair "are actually free from captivity".
He thanked the governments of Burkina Faso and Mali, in addition to the UN mission in Mali and other partners for "their assistance and co-operation over the past year in this matter".
The pair were wearing clothes of the regional Tuareg persons and apparently stopped a passing car and told the driver to take them to the nearest UN post, according to AFP news agency.
However, Ms Blais and Mr Tacchetto have not publicly spoken about how they escaped captivity.
They disappeared on 15 December 2018 in the town of Bobo-Dioulasso.
At the time these were travelling in Western Africa and were making their way to Togo for a humanitarian project.
Canada has issued travel advice for Burkina Faso, because of terrorism and kidnapping.
