Hostages released after years of captivity

French journalist Olivier Dubois was hugged by emotional reporters at a briefing in Niger on Monday announcing the release of him and U.S. aid worker Jeffery Woodke who had been held hostage in West Africa for years by Islamist militants.

Dubois was kidnapped in Mali in 2021, while Woodke was kidnapped in neighbouring Niger in 2016.

Dubois had appeared in a video last August urging authorities to do everything they could to free him from his captors.

Some journalists embraced him upon arrival at the briefing at the airport in the capital Niamey, moved by the sight of their peer, who worked for Liberation and Le Point magazine.

“It’s huge for me to be here today,” said Dubois, smiling as he answered questions. “I wasn’t expecting it at all. I feel tired but I’m well.”

Woodke, a Christian humanitarian worker, thanked God as well as the Nigerian, U.S. and French authorities for helping with his rescue.

“Greetings to my family,” he said at the briefing.

Flanked by the two men, Niger’s interior minister Hamadou Adamou Souley told journalists: “After several months of efforts, Nigerien authorities obtained the liberation of the two hostages from the hands of (JNIM), an active terrorist group in West Africa and the Sahel.”

JNIM is a West Africa-based affiliate of al Qaeda.