Foreign Ministry confirms the release of Spanish tourist kidnapped in Algeria

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and European Union has confirmed that the Spanish citizen kidnapped in Algeria has been released, after he was kidnapped on 14 January by the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), one of the main Tuareg separatist groups active in the north of Mali.

The Spanish citizen was transferred by the Algerian army from Tin Zaouatine airport to the Boufarik air base, where he was handed over to the Spanish authorities.

According to France 24 sources, his captors took him in a stolen car to the north of Mali, specifically to the Ménaka region, and were allegedly motivated by the offer made by the Islamic State of the Greater Sahel (EIGS) of a large sum of money in exchange for possible abductees. 

The FLA, which confirmed that the Algerian authorities already had the Spanish tourist, accompanied its message with a photo of the freed citizen, who could be seen sitting on a chair surrounded by several armed members of the FLA next to a pick-up vehicle in which some of the kidnappers were carrying the flag of Azawad, the name given by the Tuaregs to what is ‘their independent state’. 

Navarro, accompanied by the Spanish ambassador, Fernando Morán Calvo-Sotelo, thanked the Algerian authorities at a press conference for the treatment and security they have given him. 

‘I am very happy to be here, first I have to thank the Algerian authorities for their kindness, their security at all times. In particular, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune’, he added after being released by the Azawad Liberation Front. For his part, the Algerian president thanked the Algerian security services on his official X account for their work. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that both the CNI and Spanish diplomacy were behind the operation, and on the Algerian side, the intelligence services.