Separatist rebels in northern Mali have said that a Spanish national kidnapped in mid-January between Algeria and Mali has been freed thanks to their intervention and handed over to Algerian authorities in good health.
There has been no confirmation from Spanish or Algerian authorities.
The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a coalition of separatist rebel groups, said in a statement that the Spaniard had been freed “thanks to an operation carried out by one of its security units, together with negotiations conducted by individuals of goodwill”.
An FLA official previously said that the captive had been released on Monday afternoon following the rebels’ intervention and spent the night under their protection.
The FLA is an alliance of predominantly Tuareg rebel groups battling the Malian state.
The Spaniard was kidnapped on January 14 in southern Algeria and taken to northern Mali by “his kidnappers affiliated to an organised crime network operating in the Sahel and beyond,” the FLA statement said.
It added that he was “in very good health” and had “made contact with his family before being officially handed over by FLA officials to the Algerian authorities”.
The rebel alliance said it had been in contact with Algerian authorities throughout the operation, adding that “at no point” during the intervention was the captive’s life at risk.
Madrid on Friday said that a Spanish man had been kidnapped in North Africa in unclear circumstances, without giving further details.
The High Council for the Unity of Azawad, one of the groups making up the FLA, said in a Facebook post that the Spaniard had been freed on Monday following an FLA operation in the northeastern Menaka region of Mali.
Algeria and Mali share a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border stretching across a vast desert area which is difficult to monitor.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
The volatile border region plays host to Tuareg rebel groups and the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
The Islamic State group is also active in the Menaka region.
In mid-January, the foreign ministry in Vienna said that an Austrian woman had been kidnapped in northern Niger, which also shares a border with Mali.
The motives for kidnappings range from ransom demands to acts of retaliation, with hostages commonly transported from one country to another.
Kidnappings of foreigners or nationals are one aspect of the violence that has plagued Mali and the Sahel region since 2012.
The west African country has for over a decade been embroiled in a political, security and economic crisis.