Two hostages — one American, one French — held by jihadist groups in West Africa have been freed in a deal for which Washington and Paris expressed gratitude to Niger, reports The Times.
Jeffery Woodke, 61, a humanitarian worker, had been held hostage since 2016 after being kidnapped from his home in Niger and taken over the border to Mali or Burkina Faso.
Olivier Dubois, 48, a French freelance journalist, was abducted in 2021 while reporting in Mali. A video was released in which he said he was taken by Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, a branch of al-Qaeda in Mali’s Gao region.
“I feel tired, but I’m fine,” Dubois said after being flown into Niger’s capital, Niamey. “It’s amazing for me to be here, to be free,” he added, with Woodke leaning on a stick at his side.