Release of South Africa's Longest-Held Hostage Is 'Very Unusual Case,' Nonprofit Says

Gerco van Deventer’s release, who had been held hostage by al-Qaeda for 6 years, was "very sudden" and "unexpected," says a press release by Gift of the Givers, the nonprofit involved in the rescue of the hostage, obtained by Sputnik Africa.

According to the nonprofit, there is prior notification of the release of a hostage, that allows for all the necessary arrangements to be made beforehand, but this was not the case for van Deventer.

Moreover, the South African was released through Algeria and not from Mali, "which would have been expected."

The nonprofit has also noted that they were "awaiting feedback from SA State Security who received the initial call from Algerian State Security that Gerco was with them, a flight was being arranged to Algiers, and he was going to be medically managed in a hospital."

"There has been no further update. State Security agencies worldwide don't provide ongoing information on such matters nor do they comment, it appears to be a policy that they follow. We understand that and wait patiently for an announcement at the appropriate time. The intermediaries confirmed that Gerco was fine when released, all the videos circulated by them in the past year has shown that from a physical point of view Gerco appeared fine, to assess the psychological and emotional state is a different matter. Hostages go through a debriefing session by the host country, in this case, Algeria, but from what we were told by senior government officials in Mali and Niger, it has to be done in the presence of a South African representative," Gift of the Givers said.

Apart from that, Gift of the Givers also noted that "on pure speculation, lack of updated information could be due to the following":

Van Deventer is currently recovering in the hospital, and there might be nothing critical.

He is receiving psychological assistance in a "safe environment" to prepare him for a reunion with his family.

The parties need to allocate sufficient time for South African security personnel to go to Algeria, taking into account the need for debriefing and times of rest between sessions.

The arrangement of temporary travel documents and booking flights for van Deventer takes time.

The necessary duration for transportation from Algeria to South Africa should also be considered.

Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa's Longest-Held Hostage is Freed by Al-Qaeda

18 December 2023, 09:04

Van Deventer, a South African citizen, was an ambulance paramedic and worked for a security company. He was en route to a power plant construction site around 1,000 kilometers south of the Libyan city of Tripoli when captured on November 3, 2017.

Negotiations with the terrorists lasted five years since neither the doctor's family nor his employer could raise the ransom, which dropped from $3 million to $500,000 throughout the talks, according to the organization.

However, 6 years after the abduction, van Deventer was finally released with the facilitation of an unidentified man from Mauritania, added Gift of the Givers.

*Terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.