Two workers for the International Committee of the Red Cross have been kidnapped in Mali.
The organisation said the abductions took place on a road between the north-eastern cities of Gao and Kidal – an area which has long been a hotspot for violence by Islamist militias.
Mali has been gripped by a security crisis since 2012 and kidnappings are common, with motives including demands for ransom and acts of reprisal against security operations by the government.
Last month in Mali, a World Health Organization doctor was freed weeks after he was kidnapped from his car in the district of Ménaka. And back in May 2022, gunmen abducted three Italians and a Togolese national.
The violence has also spread into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands and displacing more than two million people in the region.
