By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
Malian prominent opposition politician, Soumaila Cisse, held by jihadists, may be freed after more than six months in captivity.
The optimism followed the Malian authorities’ release of 180 Islamic extremists from a prison in the capital and flown them to the country’s north, an official said.
It is speculated that the government had struck a deal with the jihadists to exchange their members for the politician.
Some 70 men were released on Saturday and another 110 on Sunday, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, according to Associated Press.
Besides, there has been no comment from Mali’s transitional government, which was only recently put in place more than a month after the country’s democratically elected president was ousted in a military coup.
Cisse, a 70-year-old, who has run for Mali’s presidency three times, was campaigning ahead of legislative elections not far from Timbuktu at the time of his abduction.
His bodyguard was killed in the attack, and the only proof of life has been a handwritten letter delivered back in August.
Government efforts to negotiate his release were thrown into upheaval after the coup that forced President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita from power, though it did not appear progress was being made toward Cisse’s release, Associated Press reported.
Islamic militants are active throughout northern and central Mali, though typically launch attacks on the Malian military and U.N. peacekeepers.
