Mali hostage rescue 'promising'
The GOG has had to change the direction of negotiations with the al-Qaeda militants holding Stephen McGown hostage.
|||Durban - The Gift of the Givers Foundation has had to change the direction of negotiations with the al-Qaeda militants holding South African Stephen McGown hostage.
This came after the foundation “hit a brick wall” this month, while trying to arrange a meeting with someone who could take the process further.
Last month, the Daily News reported that the Pietermaritzburg-based foundation had taken on the role of negotiator for McGown and Swede Johan Gustafsson, who is also a captive, and that it had made contact with the kidnappers.
Short proof-of-life videos, believed to have been taken in October, were subsequently released at the beginning of this month and showed the men to be in good health.
On Tuesday, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, the foundation’s chairman, said the new course on which the foundation had embarked to try to arrange a meeting looked promising.
“But there will still be many more steps to follow… That’s the challenge you are faced with when families don’t have any ransom money to pay and you don’t have much leverage to negotiate with,” he said.
Sooliman was in contact with the McGown and the Gustafsson families. “They know we are on top of things,” he said.
He was unable to provide further details but expected to have news in the new year.
McGown, Gustafsson and a Dutch national, Sjaak Rijke, were taken hostage while sitting in a restaurant in Timbuktu, Mali, in 2011.
Rijke was freed during a gunfight between French forces and the militants.
Daily News
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