French special forces have freed two French hostages, an American and a South Korean in northern Burkina Faso in an overnight military raid in which two soldiers died, authorities have announced, reports The Guardian.
The operation was ordered to free the French tourists, identified as Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas, who disappeared while on holiday in the remote Pendjari national park in Benin on May 1st.
The identity of the American and South Korean hostages was not immediately known, but a statement said they were both women.
The location of the raid indicated that the French tourists had been kidnapped in Benin and taken over the border into Burkina Faso, where Islamist terrorist and other militant groups have stepped up attacks in recent months.
In a statement, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, expressed condolences for the two French soldiers killed. He also thanked French special forces and those who worked alongside them to free the hostages.
In a separate statement, the French defence minister, Florence Parly, thanked authorities in Benin and Burkina Faso for their help with the “complex operation”, as well as the US for its “precious support”.
Four suspected kidnappers were killed in the raid, the French army said, adding that the US military had provided intelligence.
France has 4,500 troops deployed in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces in their battle against jihadist groups.
US special forces and drones are also thought to operate in the violence-hit Sahel region, which France fears could become further destabilised as jihadist groups are pushed out of north Africa, Iraq and Syria.
Burkina Faso has suffered from increasingly frequent and deadly attacks attributed to a number of jihadist groups, including Ansarul Islam, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
The French tourists went missing with a wildlife guide on the last leg of their holiday in usually peaceful Benin.
The Pendjari national park, which is known for its elephants and lions, lies close to the porous border with Burkina Faso.
The badly disfigured body of the French tourists’ guide was found shortly after they disappeared, as well as their abandoned 4x4 Toyota truck.
The two men, a music teacher and a shopkeeper working in the Paris region, are expected to travel back to France this weekend.