Sister Gloria Argoti was kidnapped on 7 February from her convent in Karangasso., Mali (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Sister Gloria Argoti was kidnapped on 7 February from her convent in Karangasso, Mali (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The Colombian nun who was taken hostage in northern Mali in February this year is still alive but her health is suffering, according to reports by Catholic news agency Fides.

Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti “is alive but not in good health. She has problems with a leg and kidney”, General Fernando Murillo from the Colombian national police reportedly told the national radio broadcaster RCN.

He added that a specialist anti-kidnapping unit, The Grupos de Acción Unificada de la Libertad Personal (GAULA), is preparing a second mission to work towards the release of the Colombian nun, who is in her sixties and belongs to the Order of Franciscan Sisters.

She was kidnapped on 7 February, when assailants broke into her convent in the village of Karangasso, southern Mali.

On 1 July she appeared in a video posted by a coalition of jihadist groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for her kidnapping and that of five other foreign hostages. Since then, one of them, South African Stephen McGowan has been freed and spoken about his ordeal.