Pope Francis meets with nun Gloria Cecilia Narváez, released on Saturday

The Colombian nun was kidnapped on February 7, 2017 by Al Qaeda terrorists in Mali, Africa. So was the meeting.

Pope Francis greeted Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Narváez at the Vatican on Sunday, who was released on Saturday after being kidnapped by jihadists in 2017 in Mali, the Vatican spokesman announced.

"This morning, before the celebration of the Holy Mass for the opening of the Synod of Bishops, the pope greeted Colombian sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez, kidnapped in 2017 and recently released," Matteo Bruni said in a brief statement.

Originally from the department of Nariño, in southwestern Colombia, Sister Gloria was a member of the Swiss congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, born in 1893 in the South American country and with a presence in 17 countries.

She was abducted on February 7, 2017 near the town of Koutiala, 400 kilometers east of the capital, Bamako. At the time, I had been working as a missionary for six years in the Karangasso parish.

According to the Malian presidency, his release was the fruit of "four years and eight months of combined efforts by the intelligence services."

"I thank the Malian authorities, the president, all the Malian authorities, for the effort they are making so that we are liberated, may God bless them, may God bless Mali," the nun said on Saturday in images broadcast on state television. that show her with the interim president of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goita, and the Archbishop of Bamako, Jean Zerbo.

"I am very happy to have been in good health for five years, thank God," added the 59-year-old nun.

Archbishop Zerbo assured AFP that the nun “is fine”: “We have prayed a lot to achieve her release. I thank the Malian authorities and other good people who have made this release possible, ”added the archbishop.

The nun boarded a plane to Rome on Saturday night.

Years of negotiations

A source close to the delegation that mediated to secure Narváez's release assured AFP that the nun was not mistreated during the kidnapping and that she knew the Koran. “We are not going to give details. The negotiations lasted months, years, "added that source.

We suggest you read: This is how the nun Gloria Cecilia Narváez spent her days during her captivity in Mali

The Vice President and Foreign Minister of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez, said she was happy about the release, which she attributed to the government and to a work of "multiple conversations and requests for international aid" with various leaders in Africa and France.

"During my recent visit to Paris, we also had the opportunity to analyze the latest survival tests and insist on the aid of humanitarian efforts from the French Government, to contribute to this achievement," he added in a statement.

According to the Colombian police, six commissions went to Ghana and Mali during the four years of captivity.

In different interviews with AFP, some close associates of Narváez have manifested negligence by the government in the case of the kidnapped nun.

The nun's mother passed away in September 2020 awaiting the release of her daughter.

Economic objective

Kidnappings are common in Mali, mired in a serious security crisis, especially in the center of the country, one of the hotbeds of jihadist violence.

Since March 2012, several areas of the country and its surroundings have been in the hands of jihadist groups linked to the Al Qaida network.

President Aissimi Goita took advantage of the release of Narváez to assure his citizens and the international community that "they are doing their best" to free all the people kidnapped in this Sahel country.

Throughout the captivity, four pieces of evidence that Narváez was alive were revealed, according to Colombian police. The latest was a letter dated February 3, 2021 and released in July by his brother Edgar.

In a document of "eleven lines, written in her own hand, with capital letters because she always used capital letters" the nun begged for her release, the also a school teacher in a town close to the city of Pasto (southwest).

According to the Colombian police, “although publicly” the group that had it did not demand “a certain figure, it was possible to establish that the final objective” was “economic”.

In a recent interview with AFP, Sister Carmen Isabel Valencia, superior of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, highlighted the “courage” of the nun at the time of the kidnapping.

According to Valencia, armed men were preparing to kidnap two younger nuns, but Narváez turned himself in to the kidnappers saying "I am the superior, take me."

"She is a woman of a very special human quality, of the highest human quality, sacrificed to die, moved by love for the poor," said Valencia.

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