Spaniard kidnapped in Mali thanks Algeria after rescue

Identified as Joaquin Navarro, the Spaniard had been on a trip last week when he was kidnapped "by an armed group made up of five people", according to the Algerian authorities.

Late on Tuesday, Algerian national television broadcast his arrival at a military airport near the capital aboard a military jet flown from Algeria's southernmost commune of Tin Zaouatine.

The foreign ministry in Madrid confirmed on Wednesday that the man had been freed with the participation of Spanish diplomatic and intelligence services.

No group has claimed responsibility for Navarro's kidnapping.

The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a coalition of predominantly Tuareg separatist rebel groups in northern Mali, said he was released on Monday following their intervention.

The FLA said "kidnappers affiliated to an organised crime network operating in the Sahel and beyond" seized Navarro in southern Algeria on January 14 and took him into northern Mali.

"I am very happy to be here," Navarro said at an Algiers press conference, standing next to Madrid's ambassador to Algeria Fernando Moran Calvo-Sotelo and Algerian Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Lounes Magramane.

He thanked the Algerian authorities "for their kindness", singling out President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

"This is a complicated moment for me," Navarro said, speaking in French.

"I am still in shock and I will need a few days to be able to recover a state of calm and tranquillity. I really need it."

Calvo-Sotelo also thanked the Algerian authorities, citing "decisive decisions and actions".

"Algeria has a preeminent role in the fight against terrorism and in guaranteeing the security of all of us," the Spanish envoy added.

Algeria and Mali share a vast 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) desert border in the Sahel region of North Africa which is difficult to monitor.

The region plays host to Tuareg rebel groups and Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims.

The Islamic State group is also active in the northern Menaka region of Mali, which has been embroiled in a political, security and economic crisis since 2012.