Militants linked to al-Qaeda have freed a South African paramedic they took hostage more than six years ago.
The humanitarian organization "Gift of Givers" announced that they had secured the "unconditional" release of Gerk van Deventer.
He was kidnapped by an unnamed group in 2017 in Libya and sold to militant Islamists in Mali a year later, the humanitarian organization added. Security forces in Mali also confirmed that the paramedic was freed at the border with Algeria and is currently under observation in hospital.
Lawlessness has reigned in large parts of Libya since NATO-backed forces toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, as Mali battles an Islamist insurgency and an insurgency by separatist forces in the north.
Van Deventer worked for a security company, according to his family, who launched a new appeal for his release in March. Several negotiations for his release were recorded during the early years, but the pandemic slowed those efforts until early this year. The three Turkish engineers who were abducted together with him were released seven months later, but he remained in captivity.
Abductions of foreigners and local residents in Mali are common. In March, the French journalist Oliver Dubois, who was kidnapped in 2021, as well as the American humanitarian worker Jeffrey Woodke, who was kidnapped in 2016, were released.
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