A Frenchman and an American who had been kidnapped and held hostage by Islamist terrorists in West Africa have been released after years of captivity.
French journalist Olivier Dubois and American Christian aid worker Jeffery Woodke spoke to the press in Niger this Monday (20), when the country’s Minister of the Interior, Hamadou Adamou Souley, celebrated “the release of the two hostages from the hands of the JNIM
[Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin]a terrorist group active in West Africa and the Sahel”.
JNIM is a group linked to Al Qaeda. Dubois had been kidnapped in Mali in 2021, while Woodke was kidnapped in Niger in 2016.
French President Emmanuel Macron thanked Niger and said on Twitter that he had spoken with Olivier Dubois and that he was “in good health”.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also took to social media to thank Woodke for his release. “The United States thanks Niger for its help in bringing him home to all who love and miss him,” he wrote.
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