It was March when Maryam Petronin returned to Mali, only five months after a French hostage exchange guaranteed her freedom from a five-year captivity in the hands of a jihadist group. Petronin, the head of a children’s aid organization in Gao, went despite warnings from French authorities and in the face of a Malian arrest warrant, sparking criticism from the French government, including spokesperson Gabriel Attal, who described her actions as “a form of irresponsibility.”

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