Canadian woman and Italian man kidnapped in Burkina Faso have been released - U.N.

A Canadian woman and Italian man kidnapped in Burkina Faso in December 2018 have been released to the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in neighboring Mali and appear to be in good health, a mission spokesman said on Saturday. Edith Blais and Italian Luca Tacchetto went missing while traveling through Burkina Faso, a country where jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State are active.

U.N. mission spokesman Olivier Salgado told Reuters that Blais and Tacchetto were received by peacekeepers on Friday evening and would be handed over to Malian authorities later on Saturday. It is not known who was responsible for kidnapping the pair.