By DALATOU MAMANE, ERIC TUCKER and KRISTA LARSON (Associated Press)
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — An American help employee and a French journalist kidnapped and held by Islamist extremists have been freed on Monday, 4 days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid a go to to West Africa.
U.S. officers mentioned no ransom had been paid for help employee Jeffery Woodke, who was held for greater than six years. They praised Niger’s authorities for serving to safe his launch. The French authorities didn’t touch upon how freedom was received for journalist Olivier Dubois, who was kidnapped nearly two years in the past in Mali.
Blinken had visited the area final week and on Thursday spoke to the press in Niger, the place he introduced $150 million in direct help to the Sahel area.
“I’m very pleased we are now seeing that come to fruition today,” Blinken mentioned, thanking his crew, and Niger, for his or her efforts. “We won’t rest until they’re all home, like Jeffery, reunited with their families.”
Els Woodke launched a press release by means of a household spokesman saying that she had not but spoken together with her husband, however had been advised he was in good situation.
“She praises God for answering the prayers of Christians everywhere who have prayed for this outcome,” the assertion learn.
Woodke had been kidnapped from his house in Abalak, Niger, in October 2016 by males who ambushed and killed his guards and compelled him at gunpoint into their truck, the place he was pushed north towards Mali’s border.
At a 2021 information convention in Washington, Els Woodke mentioned she believed that her husband was being held by an al-Qaida-linked militant group generally known as JNIM and mentioned her husband’s captors had made a multi-million-dollar ransom demand for his launch.
Dubois additionally was being held by JNIM militants, although it was unclear how a lot time the 2 international hostages had spent in captivity collectively, mentioned Laith Alkhouri, CEO of Intelonyx Intelligence Advisory.
Officials in Niger unexpectedly introduced Monday morning that the 2 males had taken a particular flight to the nation’s capital however supplied no particulars. U.S. officers mentioned that the American hostage was not freed in Niger however within the surrounding area that features Mali, the place Dubois was kidnapped in 2021.
Both gave the impression to be bodily effectively once they met briefly with a small group of journalists in Niamey. Dubois smiled broadly as he was greeted by well-wishers, saying he was drained however in any other case nice.
“It’s amazing for me to be here, to be free,” the 48-year-old journalist mentioned. “I didn’t expect it at all. I would like to pay tribute to Niger, and to its knowledge of these types of delicate missions. And to pay tribute to France and to all those who made it possible to be here today.”
Woodke, who wore his lengthy gray hair in a ponytail and used a strolling stick, didn’t converse to journalists.
Also, on Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross introduced that two of its staff have been freed in Mali. The group wouldn’t disclose the workers’ identities or the circumstances of the kidnapping, and it couldn’t be confirmed if there was any connection to the opposite hostages whose launch was introduced the identical day.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby mentioned efforts to free Woodke have been spearheaded by the U.S. army, regulation enforcement and intelligence neighborhood, working intently with the French authorities.
“It was a team effort to get him out, and there were no concessions made,” Kirby mentioned. “There were no swaps here. This was just hard, grueling, deliberate work by diplomats and other experts directly with the government of Niger to get him home.”
Woodke and Debois have been the highest-profile foreigners identified to be held within the area, and their launch was the most important since a French lady and two Italian males have been freed collectively in Mali again in October 2020.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote that he had spoken with Dubois on Monday.
“Immense relief for the nation, for his relatives and fellow journalists,” Macron tweeted. “Deep gratitude to Niger for this release.”
The press group Reporters Without Borders, which had lengthy pushed for Dubois’ launch, additionally celebrated Monday.
“We feel joy and immense relief,” the group mentioned, thanking French authorities, too.
Alkhouri of Intelonyx Intelligence Advisory mentioned that: “While it remains unclear what circumstances led to the release of the hostages, it might not be a coincidence that their freedom came as Blinken wrapped up his visit to Niger and earmarked millions of dollars in aid, some of which could have oiled the Niger government to use its intelligence apparatus in negotiating their release.”
A senior U.S. administration official, talking on background, mentioned Woodke is the second American to be freed within the final six months and that the subject had come up throughout Blinken’s go to to Niamey final week. The id of the opposite hostage freed in Niger was not made public.
“We have certainly been in touch with them about what a priority it is for us to secure the release of Americans like Jeff Woodke, and that’s something that the Secretary confirmed when he was out there,” the official mentioned.
Groups have lengthy kidnapped hostages for ransom within the Sahel, the huge, semi-arid expanse under the Sahara Desert. Previously launched captives have described being moved regularly from website to website in harrowing situations amid sweltering temperatures. The extremists purpose to make use of hundreds of thousands in ransom to fund their jihadi operations, although not all international locations have interaction in cost negotiations.
The Biden administration official didn’t determine the precise group believed accountable for protecting Woodke in captivity, saying a lot of overlapping networks in operated in that a part of West Africa.
At least 25 foreigners and untold numbers of locals have been kidnapped within the Sahel since 2015, in keeping with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. In 2020, Swiss authorities mentioned Christian missionary Beatrice Stoeckli was killed by her militant captors.
Militants with hyperlinks to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are believed to nonetheless be holding a lot of captives, together with a German priest. The Rev. Hans-Joachim Lohre was getting ready to have fun Mass in Mali’s capital when he was kidnapped final November.
Last yr an Italian couple and their little one have been kidnapped with a family worker in southern Mali. Other hostages taken in West Africa embrace Ken Elliott, an Australian physician kidnapped in 2016 and Romanian citizen Julian Ghergut, seized close to a mining website in 2015.
___
Tucker reported from Washington and Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Ellen Knickmeyer and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Angela Charlton in Paris and Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”