Netherlands – The Moscow Times, Apr. 21, 2026
Russia’s army said Tuesday its Africa Corps unit had freed two hostages — employees of Russian geology company — held in Mali, almost two years after they were captured by an al-Qaeda-linked group in neighboring Niger.
In August 2024, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) released a video featuring two men it said had been captured in Mbanga, southwest Niger, from a Russian geology company.
Moscow said they had been taken hostage the month before.
The two men — Oleg Greta, a Russian citizen born in 1962 and Yuri Yurov, a Ukrainian born in 1970 — were freed by a “special operation” carried out by Russia’s Africa Corps in Mali, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
“An initial medical examination by Russian doctors at the Africa Corps hospital revealed that they suffer from numerous medical conditions and severe physical exhaustion,” it said in a statement on social media.
