An Italian couple and their children and a person from West African Togo have been kidnapped by armed people in Mali, sources tell AFP.
All four belong to Jehovah’s Witnesses and the four were in a car ten miles from the border with Burkina Faso when the kidnappers struck.
Italy’s Foreign Ministry confirms that three citizens have been abducted and that every effort is being made to free the victims. Kidnappings with political or economic motives are common in Mali, which since 2012 has been fighting an uprising of groups linked to jihadist terrorist groups.