Analysis: French aid worker Pétronin ‘benefitted’ from effort to free Malian politician Cissé

French aid worker Sophie Pétronin, who was kidnapped in Mali in 2016, was released as a result of negotiations to free her co-hostage, prominent Malian politician Soumaila Cissé, according to FRANCE 24’s Wassim Nasr. “There were many intermediaries, brokers, in this story since April, because you have to know that Sophie Pétronin benefitted actually from the negotiations about the liberation of Cissé,” Nasr said. “And the dynamic in Mali is mostly about Cissé and not about Pétronin, of course, and she profited from this dynamic.”