News24.com | Mediator negotiating release of SA paramedic kidnapped in Mali back home to convey 'sensitive information'

• Gift of the Givers' negotiator Yahya Dicko is back in the country to convey sensitive information relating to the release of Gerco van Deventer.
• Organisation founder Imtiaz Sooliman says Dicko had positive engagements with the intermediaries.
• He says he will return to Mali later this week.

Yahya Dicko, the mediator negotiating the release of a South African paramedic captive in Mali, is back in the country to convey "sensitive information". 

Gift of the Givers' founder Imtiaz Sooliman said on Tuesday that Dicko had positive engagements with intermediaries in contact with Gerco van Deventer's captors amid ongoing negotiations. 

"They are still opening the door for further dialogue. Yahya Dicko has returned to South Africa to consult and discuss the matter because certain sensitive information cannot be passed on telephonically."

Dicko will return to Mali later this week. 

Sooliman said while he couldn't predict the outcome, the organisation hoped for Van Deventer's unconditional release. 

"We are continuing with all efforts, using all networks and all arrangements to try and achieve success in getting Gerco van Deventer out alive, unharmed, unconditionally and paying no ransom money," he said.

Van Deventer was held hostage in Libya in November 2017. 

READ | Kidnappings doubled nationally: over 4 000 cases reported to police from July to September

He had moved from Afghanistan for safer working conditions, but was kidnapped and sold to an Al-Qaeda group in Mali. His family last heard from him in January via a video recording it received from Gift of the Givers. 

Sooliman told News24 last month that Van Deventer begged for his release in the video. "He looked good in the video. He said he was trying to get a hold of the government and that this was his last chance. I don't know what he meant by that. My negotiator sent it to me, but we couldn't keep negotiating and keep telling them you have no money. They could get angry. You have to be very careful."

Sooliman also said that Dicko didn't communicate with the captors directly.

"We are speaking to the younger generation, not the captors, but people who know them. It's a long line. That is why you can't trace them," he said.