French troops freed five aid workers kidnapped Mali

French troops freed five aid workers were kidnapped in Mali in February by one of the militant groups in the country , said the leaders of France and Mali on Thursday .

" An operation conducted by the French Armed Forces " successfully released five workers - four employees of the Red Cross and a veterinarian from other aid organizations - after a " terrorist group " kidnapped them on February 8 in the northern region of Mali , the country's second president in a joint statement .

The hostages were in good health after a morning raid in the area north of Timbuktu , the statement said quoted by AFP .

Abduction was claimed by the Movement of Oneness and Jihad in West Africa ( MUJAO ) , a splinter group of Al-Qaeda in the region .

The five men were lost with their vehicles on the road between the cities of Kidal and Gao when working in the region .

MUJAO leader , Yoro Abdoulsalam , claimed the abduction of three days later told AFP .

In a statement Thursday , the president of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar thanked French President Francois Hollande and send " deep gratitude ... for the commitment of France to Mali since 2013 " .

The two leaders promised to continue the fight against " terrorism , organized crime and drug trafficking " in the Sahel region south of the Sahara desert.

Mali , who had been one of the stable democracies in Africa , experiencing uncertainty after a military coup in March 2012 to topple the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure .

The international community is concerned that the country will become a new hotbed of terrorists and their support African efforts to intervene militarily .

Hardliners , who say the experts acting under the umbrella of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( AQIM ) , dominate the northern region of Mali , covering an area larger than France , since April last year .

Tribal rebels in mid- January 2012 launch another war decades for an independent Tuareg in northern areas they claim as their land , which is reinforced by heavily armed militants who had just returned from Libya . However , they struggle then hijacked by groups of Islamist .

Disgruntled army coup in March 2012, is intended to give more authority to the military to quell a rebellion in the north , but it backfired and the rebels control of the three main cities in northern Mali within three days.
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France , in collaboration with the Malian army , on January 11, 2013 launched the operation when militants threaten progress to the capital of Mali , Bamako , after months of doubts about African intervention troops to help oust the hardline groups of the northern region .

source:http://www.antaranews.com/