French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian affirmed on Monday that French nationals kidnapped in the Sahel region are alive, adding that the government's initiatives to release them remained fruitless.

"We said and we repeated that they (hostages) are alive... However, for the moment, the initiatives that we are taking to secure their release were unsuccessful, and are not only unsuccessful but there is one more hostage," the minister told France Culture radio.

"So we must also stop this process and to ensure that it will be happened with the best way," he added.

In November, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) claimed responsibility for kidnapping a 61-year-old Portuguese-born hostage abducted in Kayes in southwest Mali, as response to Paris' continued support of a planned military operation to oust Islamists insurgents from the northern region of the west African country.

Six French nationals are already in the hands of kidnappers in the Sahel region.