The Franco-Australian national kidnapped Friday in Chad has been released, Chadian Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo announced on Sunday. He had been kidnapped on Friday, in a province in the east of the country, bordering Sudan, “by as yet unidentified individuals”, according to the Chadian government.
The man, who works at Oryx Park, managed by Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF), a wildlife conservation NGO, was released and is in “good health”, rejoiced the Chadian Prime Minister in a tweet. “I have just learned that the kidnapped Franco-Australian hostage (…) has just been found and brought to safety”, he declared, congratulating “the defense and security forces for this prompt successful action” .
The hostage “was released in the province of Tibesti (north), in a border area of Niger and Libya by our defense and security forces”, declared for his part Ayoub Abdelkerim Abdoulaye, governor of the province of Wadi Fira, where the Franco-Australian national had been kidnapped.
On Saturday, the French Foreign Ministry indicated that it had “knowledge of the kidnapping of one of our compatriots in Chad” and was “in contact with his family, as with the Chadian authorities, in order to obtain his rapid release”. .
Landlocked in the heart of the Sahel, Chad, with an area of around 1.3 million km², borders Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Libya, Sudan and the Central African Republic.