A week after three Indian nationals were abducted in Mali, their families say they remain in the dark about their whereabouts, fueling growing concern for their safety.
The men employees at the Diamond Cement Factory in Kayes, operated by Indian firm Prasaditya Group were reportedly “forcibly taken” by armed attackers last Tuesday, according to India’s foreign ministry. The Mali government has yet to issue a statement on the incident, which occurred amid multiple attacks across the country claimed by al-Qaeda linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
Around 400 Indians reside in Mali, a country with longstanding trade ties to India dating back to the 1990s. The kidnapping comes shortly after a similar incident in Niger, where five Indians were abducted in April and remain missing.
The Sahel region which includes Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso has become a global hotspot for extremist violence, accounting for over half of terrorism related deaths worldwide, according to the Global Terrorism Index.
India’s foreign ministry has urged nationals in Mali to remain vigilant and stay in close contact with the embassy in Bamako. Local residents reported widespread gunfire in Kayes on the day of the kidnapping, amid coordinated militant attacks on military posts across Mali.
Back home, the families of the abducted workers are increasingly anxious. Panad Venkatramana, an engineer from Odisha, last spoke to his mother on June 30. “He said he was going to work and would call later,” she recalled. Days later, the family saw news of his kidnapping on television. Former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has called on India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar to intervene for Venkatramana’s safe release.
In southern India, relatives of another abducted worker, Amaralingaeswara Rao from Andhra Pradesh, are also desperate for information. Rao’s father shared that his son moved to Mali eight years ago to better support his family, including three children. He was scheduled to visit India in October plans now indefinitely suspended.
The Indian government says it is working closely with Mali authorities and factory representatives, but the families say concrete updates are still lacking.
