She is the founder and director of "Aide à Gao", a Swiss non-governmental relief organization that assists children suffering from malnutrition.
While working in Gao in 2016, she was abducted by Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, the official branch of Al-Qaeda in Mali.
She was released in October 2020, alongside Malian opposition leader Soumaila Cisse and two Italian citizens, after being held hostage for 1,381 days.
Pétronin revealed that Béatrice Stöckli, a Swiss Christian missionary who had been held hostage alongside her, was killed earlier that year by the terrorist organization.
[5][6] In 2012, members of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad attacked towns throughout Mali, including Gao, following the 2012 Malian coup d'état and Tuareg Rebellion that overthrew President Amadou Toumani Touré.
Seven months after her disappearance, in July 2017, she appeared in a video posted by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb alongside five other hostages: Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti from Colombia (who was released on 9 October 2021 and met with Pope Francis), Béatrice Stöckli from Switzerland, Arthur Kenneth Elliott from Australia, Stephen McGown from South Africa, and Iulian Ghergut from Romania.
[1][6] Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, a jihadist militant group and the official Mali branch of Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
[12][2] Macron responded to Chadaud-Pétronin in December 2018, releasing a statement that read, "The State continues to act relentlessly to find our compatriot.
Chadaud-Pétronin was supported in his campaign to free his mother by his cousin, Arnaud Granouillac, and Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt, who had been held hostage in Colombia from 2002 to 2008.
[15] Pétronin was released in October 2020, after 1,381 days in captivity, alongside Malian opposition leader Soumaila Cisse and two Italians citizens, a Catholic priest named Father Pierluigi Maccalli, and Nicola Chiacchio.
[21] Despite being abducted and held hostage, Pétronin stated that she wished to return to Mali to continue her charity work after spending time back home in France and Switzerland.
[1][23] In 2021, Pétronin returned to Mali via Senegal without following standard formalities, thus avoiding the pressure being exercised by French authorities who attempted to stop her from getting a visa.
Government Spokesman Gabriel Attal deplored her "irresponsibility" in returning to Mali, given that French soldiers had been killed in the operation to rescue her from hostage-takers in 2020.