Overview

• An elderly Italian couple and their son, kidnapped in Mali in May 2022 by jihadists, have been released and are in good health.
• The family, part of a Jehovah's Witnesses community, was planning to set up a church when abducted.
• Italy's intelligence agency and the foreign ministry secured their release through contacts with community leaders and Mali's intelligence agencies.
• The family's domestic worker, a Togolese national also abducted, has an unclear fate.
• Mali's insurgency, ongoing for over a decade, has seen jihadists often kidnap foreigners for ransom or to demand the release of fellow fighters.