Swiss missionary Beatrice Stockli, kidnapped from Timbuktu in northern Mali in January 2016, was killed only weeks before other hostages were freed by Islamist extremists in an apparent prisoner-hostage swap negotiated by the new transitional government in Mali.
News of her execution came from Sophie Petronin, a 75-year-old French aid worker, freed on 8 October, who had apparently been held by the same, or a linked, Islamist militia group. (Petronin converted to Islam and now calls herself Mariam).
The Swiss authorities expressed its sorrow that Stockli, a single woman in her late 40s, was ‘apparently killed … about a month ago’, although it did not name her, as is their custom. They said they will do all they can to find out details of exactly how she died, and to return her body to her family.
