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Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane confirmed on Thursday that South African hostage Stephen McGowan, who was kidnapped by al Qaeda has been released.
McGowan was kidnapped from a hotel in Timbuktu – a tourist town in Mali – in 2011 along with a German, a Swede and a Dutch national.
In a news conference, Minister Nkoana-Mashabane officially announced his release.
“We are happy to announce that finally, these efforts have culminated in Mr McGown’s release on 29 July 2017. We would like to warmly welcome him back home and wish him good health, good fortune in his life as a free man.
It is with sadness though, that his dear mother… passed on in May 2017 without seeing her son back home.”
She said no ransom was paid for his release and also thanked South Africans, the government and the people of Mali, the Economic Community of the West African States, different non-governmental organisations and certain individuals for numerous campaigns advocating for McGowan’s release.
Gift of the Givers, an organization which had been negotiating his freedom, on Thursday, described Stephen McGowan’s release a “great moment”.
Its founder‚ Imtiaz Sooliman said:
“This is a great moment for us. His release has come at a good time when we will be celebrating our 25th anniversary on Saturday‚ so this is a gift for us
We are excited‚ especially for his family. We’ve seen their anguish. Stephen’s mother died before she could see him released. We saw his father’s pain. We were there with them since Stephen was held hostage.”
In a video that emerged in December 2015, the South African hostage and Swiss national Johan Gustafsson were spotted together. The video was posted on YouTube to show the hostages were alive.
Gustafsson was released in June. According to Swedish Radio, the kidnappers had demanded 5 million dollars for Gustafsson’s release, but the government rejected it.
In May‚ McGowan’s family sent a message of hope to mark 2‚000 days since he and Swede Johan Gustafsson were captured by in Mali.
In July, a bearded McGowan appeared again in a video, but little did he know that he would be freed soon.
In the video, he reportedly said:
McGown reported said: “It’s a long time to be away. Until when do you think this will come to an end? Now we’re making a new video, but I don’t know what to say. It’s all been said in the past. It’s all been said in previous videos I’ve made.”
South African Hostage Stephen McGowan was released on Saturday and is now home with his family in Johannesburg.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb started as a breakaway group from an Islamist movement that fought Algeria’s government in the 1990s.
Its terrorist activists began in 2000 North Mali, where it pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s movement. The group has been responsible for dozens of kidnappings of Westerners and scores of attacks on security forces across West Africa.
