A Romanian national kidnapped by an Al-Qaeda affiliate in 2015 in Burkina Faso, has been released after eight years in captivity, the Romanian government announced on Wednesday.
Iulian Ghergut, now 47, was taken on April 4, 2015, while working in a manganese mine in northeast Burkina Faso, near the border with Mali and Niger.
โHe has been released and is currently safe on Romanian territory,โ Romaniaโs foreign ministry said in a press release, thanking Morocco for its โimportant supportโ.
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on X, formerly known as Twitter, welcomed the release of Ghergut and thanked the Romanian institutions and its โexternal partnersโ for their efforts.
It was the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group, Al-Mourabitoun, that claimed the abduction of Ghergut.
He is thought to have been one of the last remaining Western hostages in Africaโs troubled Sahel region.
In May, 88-year-old Australian surgeon Kenneth Elliott was released after more than seven yearsโ captivity.
Elliott and his wife were abducted by Al Qaeda-linked jihadists in Burkina Faso in January 2016. His spouse was released three weeks later.
French journalist Olivier Dubois, and US aid worker Jeffery Woodke, kidnapped in 2021 and 2016 respectively, were freed in March.
