German man freed more than four years after kidnapping in Niger
Armed men on motorcycles abducted Jorg Lange, a 63-year-old aid worker and engineer, from the town of Inates in 2018.
A German aid worker has been freed more than four and a half years after he was kidnapped in Niger, according to German aid organisation Help.
In a statement on Saturday, the organisation did not provide details of how or where Jorg Lange, a 63-year-old engineer, was released.
Armed men on motorcycles kidnapped Lange in April 2018 near the Nigerien town of Inates in borderlands where rebel groups, some with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), have carried out frequent attacks and kidnappings for many years.
“We are very relieved and grateful that our colleague Jorg Lange can return to his family after more than four and a half years,” said Bianca Kaltschmitt, the organisation’s managing director.
Kaltschmit thanked the German Foreign Office and other German authorities, as well as “authorities and friends in Mali, Niger and neighbouring countries”.
An engineer by training, Lange had worked in the humanitarian sector for more than 30 years before he was kidnapped.
At least 25 foreigners and an untold number of locals have been abducted in the Sahel region since 2015, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Five foreigners remain captive according to the organisation, including Reverend Hans-Joachim Lohre, a German priest kidnapped in Mali’s capital Bamako, in November.
Others still detained include French journalist Olivier Dubois, who was kidnapped last April from northern Mali, US national Jeffery Woodke, Australian doctor Ken Elliott, and Romanian national Iulian Ghergut, who was abducted from a mine in Burkina Faso and has been held since 2015.
