20 July 2012: BBC News report confirms hostages freed
A prisoner exchange enabled three European aid workers held hostage to be released on Wednesday in Mali, negotiators have revealed.
“It was a release in exchange for a release,” said Gen Gilbert Diendere, who headed the mediation team, according to Reuters news agency.
MADRID/BAMAKO (Reuters) – An Italian and two Spanish hostages were freed in northern Mali on Wednesday by the al Qaeda-linked MUJWA Islamist group, the Spanish government said on Wednesday.
The three aid workers were seized in a refugee camp near Tindouf, Algeria, last October and were then believed to have been transferred to northern Mali, which is now controlled by a mix of Islamist groups.