A Swiss missionary abducted for ten days in 2012 was kidnapped again on 8 January in Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu.
Beatrice Stockly was taken from her residence before dawn by armed men who arrived in four pickup trucks.
No group has yet claimed responsibility. Militant Islamist groups are active in the region, where two attacks in recent weeks, one of them at a Christian radio station just before Christmas, have left 25 people dead.