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Rabat – The Malian government has announced the release of four Moroccan truck drivers who were kidnapped earlier this year in northeastern Burkina Faso near the border with Niger.
Bamako announced their release on Monday, noting that the truckers, who were kidnapped in January, were freed last Sunday.
All four Moroccan truckers are “safe and sound,” the Malian government said, asserting that they were held by the terrorist Islamic State in the Sahel Province.
The terrorist group is affiliated with ISIS.
The statement emphasized that the release took place in coordination with Mali’s National State Security Agency and Morocco’s General Directorate for Studies and Documentation.
The two departments jointly conducted an investigation that led to the drivers’ release.
Moroccan truckers have been increasingly affected by the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel.
In January, a violent attack in Niooro du Sahel, a town in Mali, affected two Moroccan trucks as terrorists targeted several points in the city.
The truckers were safe, but a few trucks were slightly damaged during the attack.
In 2021, two Moroccan drivers died due to another violent attack.
Back then, Mali condemned the attack, describing it as “barbaric.”
“In this painful circumstance, the minister expressed, on behalf of the president of the transition and the government, all the compassion and solidarity with the government and the brotherly people of Morocco,” said the Malian Foreign Affairs Ministry.
