More than three years after he was captured by al Qaeda militants in Mali, Serge Lazarevic, the last French hostage in Africa, has been released, French President François Hollande announced Tuesday.
In a statement released Tuesday, Hollande noted that Lazarevic was “relatively healthy, despite the very harsh conditions of his long captivity”.
The 50-year-old Frenchman would be repatriated from Niamey, the capital of Niger, to France, Hollande added.
Lazarevic was kidnapped by al Qaeda’s North African branch, AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), from a hotel in Hombori on November 24, 2011.
The Paris-based businessman, who has joint French and Serbian nationalities, was seized along with a French geologist, Philippe Verdon, a year before northern Mali fell to jihadist control following a March 2012 military coup.
In July 2013, French authorities confirmed that Verdon had been killed following an AQIM statement that the group had killed the French geologist “in retaliation” for the French military operation in Mali launched in January 2013.
Announcing the release Tuesday, Hollande thanked Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Niger’s President Mahamadou Issofou for their work and “personal commitment” to securing Lazarevic’s freedom.
It was not known if Lazarevic was held in Mali or neighbouring Niger after his capture. Militants in the desolate Sahel scrubland region are known to cross borders using ancient smuggling routes in what is one of the world’s most inhospitable regions.
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