Red Cross Team Kidnapped in Mali Set Free

Three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who were kidnapped over the weekend in northern Mali,are free and safe now, according to ICRC President Peter Maurer.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), kidnapped last week in Mali, are free and safe, ICRC President Peter Maurer said on Friday.

Last week, reports emerged in the media that an ICRC team had been kidnapped over the weekend in northern Mali, and contact with them was lost. On Monday, an ICRC spokesman confirmed the reports.

"The best news we could get: our three colleagues in #Mali are free, safe and sound," Maurer said via Twitter on Friday.

The best news we could get: our three colleagues in #Mali are free, safe and sound.

— Peter Maurer (@PMaurerICRC) April 22, 2016

​Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 military coup that saw separatist Tuareg tribes seize control over large areas in the northern part of the country. Islamist groups that emerged in Mali in the last decade have recently staged several terrorist attacks in the country.

The security situation deteriorated as on November 20 several gunmen took 170 people hostage in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali's capital. At least 19 people died as a result of the hostage crisis, including six Russian nationals.