Sophie petronin “ends her life where she always wanted to end it”journalist Anthony Fouchard, journalist and author of the book “It is enough of a hope”, declared Tuesday, November 2 on franceinfo, about the return of the 76-year-old ex-hostage to Bamako in Mali for seven months. The French humanitarian aid worker was released in October 2020 after four years of detention in northern Mali, his release was successful after very long discussions and the release of dozens of jihadists.
franceinfo: Were you surprised by Sophie Pétronin’s return to Mali?
Anthony Fouchard: No, absolutely not surprised especially since I lived with her from the day of her release until her departure and I saw just like her family her condition which was only getting worse, she was wasting away day by day. and had very dark thoughts for a 76 year old woman. She said it over and over, her life these 25 The past few years have been devoted to Mali, she has her adopted daughter who is still there and she was keen to find her and I think that this can be understood by the greatest number.
Are you worried about her ?
I am worried in a way, that is to say that for eight months this unofficial situation posed no problem to anyone. The Malian, Swiss and French authorities were aware of the presence of Sophie Pétronin in Bamako in Mali. The question today is timing. Why did the Malian authorities choose to make its presence public with this press release which was leaked on social networks? It’s not even broadcast through a state channel.
The only political element that we can put forward is this quarrel, this dispute between the French and Malian aurotiés which is in the public square. Will she be a collateral damage to this quarrel ? Will she be able to stay? Will she be separated from her daughter ? This is my concern and not about his security, since in Bamako, even if it is a capital affected by terrorism, one can still live as a foreign national. I am basing myself on what Sophie told me since I had her on the phone a few hours ago.
How is she today?
Alright, until last week she was living a rather peaceful retirement, anyway that’s how she described it. She found her daughter, who was her main goal and who in the process passed her baccalaureate. She ends her life where she always wanted to end it. 25 years ago, she left Europe because she lost one of her sons in a mountain accident and she had made a promise to herself never to come back. When she is brought back from the desert to Switzerland, without even the opportunity to see her daughter, she sees him as a nameless brutality. She is a lady of 76 years who may have had words that have shocked, but we must try to qualify them, to understand and not to give in to controversy.
We remember the desperate appeals of the family so that the French authorities take care of his fate, you understand that this return can nevertheless challenge?
Yes, I understand that from the point of view of people who take this story from afar might be surprised that a lady, after spending four years in the wilderness, wants to return to this country. But the nuance, it is there, it is in this country. Sophie doesn’t want to go back to the desert, she doesn’t want to be taken hostage and go back to northern Mali to eat sand for years, to put it mildly. There, she is in Bamako, in a country she loves.
As for the rewards or storytelling that one might expect from a hostage in normal times, she does not comply with them. And then, the adventures of his son Sébastien Petronin are unprecedented in this case. I would like to remind you that the French state commissioned him and funded him for at least two years so that he himself could lead the negotiations to release his mother. I understand that some may be surprised. I think that with the right information and with these explanations, we can at least try to put ourselves back into a slightly more neutral posture.