Three Italians and a Togolese are kidnapped in Mali by “armed men.”

A local official and a Malian security source told AFP Friday that armed men kidnapped an Italian couple and their child, as well as a Togolese national, in southeastern Mali.

#UPDATE Three Italians and a Togolese national were kidnapped “by armed men” Thursday evening in southeastern Mali, a local official and a Malian security source told AFP

Map showing zones of influence by armed groups in the Sahel pic.twitter.com/NWXh9jJnS3

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 20, 2022

They said the kidnappings happened Thursday night, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the border with Burkina Faso, in a part of West Africa where violence, unrest, and kidnappings are caused by armed Islamists.

“Armed men in a vehicle kidnapped three Italians and a Togolese about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Koutiala,” a Koutiala region official who did not want to be identified said late Thursday.

He said that the victims were two adults and a child from Italy, as well as a man from Togo. All three were Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Two Italian adults and their children, as well as a Togolese, were kidnapped, according to a Malian security source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“Religious people,” he said of the abductees.

He said that the kidnappings happened in the town of Sincina, which is in the southeast of the country and about 100 kilometers from the border with Burkina Faso.

The source said that “we are doing everything to obtain their release,” adding that diplomatic channels were open.

Armed men: “Extensive checks”

In a terse statement, the Italian foreign ministry’s crisis unit said it was doing “rigorous checks” on “news appearing in different media relative to the abduction in Mali of three Italian nationals.”

The statement said, “Foreign Minister (Luigi) Di Maio is personally following developments in this case.”

In recent years, a number of Westerners have been kidnapped across the border in Burkina Faso.

Kidnappings are common in Mali for reasons ranging from criminal to political.

The conditions or circumstances of kidnap victims’ release are almost never properly established.

Mali has been ravaged by Islamist insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State since 2012. Myriad rebel factions and militias control vast swaths of the country.

The violence started in the north, spread to the center, and then to Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, and hundreds of thousands have been forced to leave their homes.

Olivier Dubois, a 47-year-old freelance journalist from France who has lived and worked in Mali since 2015, was abducted more than a year ago.

On May 5, 2021, he announced his kidnapping in a video uploaded on social media. He said he was taken from the northern city of Gao by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the largest jihadist alliance in the Sahel with ties to Al-Qaeda.

On March 13, a video of a guy who looks to be a French journalist addressing his family and the French government went viral on social media.

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