Bamako - (AFP) - A worker of the humanitarian organization "Doctors Without Borders" has been released after being kidnapped in Mali by jihadists, according to police and organizations.

And sources in the financial police told AFP that gunmen kidnapped the worker, who holds the nationality of Burkina Faso, in the northeastern city of Gao, the largest city in the region.

Another Gao police source added, "At 08:00 GMT, the Médecins Sans Frontières worker, who had been kidnapped on December 19, was released."

A source from a foreign humanitarian organization in the city confirmed the news.

"He was released while he is in good health, and he went to Bamako (the capital of Mali) on a plane belonging to a humanitarian organization," he told AFP.

A Doctors Without Borders official confirmed the worker's release, without giving further details.

Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, has been witnessing a jihadist insurgency for nearly a decade, which has expanded to include neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso.
Thousands of civilians and security personnel in the three Sahel countries have been killed in the conflict, and more than two million people have been displaced from their homes.

There are many reasons for the kidnappings in Mali, some of which may be motivated by ideology sometimes, but the kidnapped are often released after paying a ransom.