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US aid worker freed after being held hostage for 6 years in Africa

Fun VLOG March 20, 2023
French journalist Olivier Dubois, left, and American aid worker Jeffery Woodke, center, arrive at the VIP lounge at the airport in Niamey, Niger, Monday March 20, 2023. Woodke was held by Islamic extremists in West Africa for more than six years and Dubois was abducted almost two years ago. The two men were the highest-profile foreigners known to be held in the region, and their release was the largest since a French woman and two Italian men were freed together in Mali back in Oct. 2020. (AP Photo/Judith Besnard)
American aid worker Jeffrey Woodke (center) and French journalist Olivier Dubois (left) were released from captivity in Niger on Monday (Picture: AP)

An American aid worker and missionary was rescued on Monday in Niger after being held hostage by Islamist extremists for six years in West Africa.

Jeffery Woodke, a 62-year-old American from McKinleyville, California, was flown to the Nigerien capital of Niamey on Monday.

US Secretary of State announced Woodke’s return on Monday morning at a press conference in Washington DC.

‘I want to thank the government of Niger, where I was just last week, for the important assistance in bringing him home,’ Blinken said. ‘I have no higher priority or focus than bringing home any unjustly detained American, wherever that is in the world. We won’t rest until they’re all home and reunited with their families.’

(FILES) In this file video grab taken on October 18, 2016 US aid worker Jeffery Woodke is seen during a ceremony to introduce his NGO in Abalak, two days before he was captured. - US national Jeffery Woodke, kidnapped in Niger in 2016, is freed on March 20, 2023. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Jeffrey Woodke ran an NGO in Niger before his kidnapping in 2016 (Picture: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Woodke’s wife, Els Woodke, also confirmed to the New York Times that her husband was ‘safe’ and in ‘good spirits.’

The American missionary was kidnapped at gunpoint from his residence in Abalak, Niger in 2016. He was forced into a truck and driven north toward the border with Mali.

Woodke’s wife told reporters in 2021 that he was being held by JNIM, an Islamist militant group affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State and based in Mali. She said the group was demanding a multi-million dollar ransom payment for his return.

JNIM and other terrorist groups have abducted westerners in the Sahel region in the past, and use money from ransoms to fund their operations.

French journalist Olivier Dubois (L), freed nearly two years after he was kidnapped by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) in Mali, and US national Jeffery Woodke (R), freed after being kidnapped in October 2016 in Niger, are seen as they arrive at the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey on March 20, 2023. (Photo by Souleymane AG ANARA / AFP) (Photo by SOULEYMANE AG ANARA/AFP via Getty Images)
Olivier Dubois (left) and Jeffrey Woodke (right) are seen at the Niamey Airport after their release was secured on Monday (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Woodke was released alongside French journalists Olivier Dubois, who was also being held by JNIM. Dubois, 48, was kidnapped in April, 2021 in the Malian city of Gao.

Dubois and Woodke appeared briefly for photographers and reporters after their return to Niamey.

‘It’s amazing for me to be here, to be free,’ Dubois said, thanking the Nigerien and French governments. Woodke did not say anything during the interaction.

French journalist Olivier Dubois, center, is greeted by his colleague Anne-Fleur Lespiaut at the airport in Niamey, Niger, Monday March 20, 2023. Dubois, who was abducted almost two years ago, was released alongside American aid worker Jeffery Woodke who was held by Islamic extremists in West Africa for more than six years. The two men were the highest-profile foreigners known to be held in the region, and their release was the largest since a French woman and two Italian men were freed together in Mali back in Oct. 2020. (AP Photo/Judith Besnard)
Olivier Dubois embraces his colleague Anne-Fleur Lespiaut at the airport in Niamey, Niger (Picture: AP)

US officials said that no ransom had been paid to any group in the Sahel,

Secretary of State Blinken’s recently returned from a trip to Niger, where he promised the landlocked West African state an additional $50million in aid.

The money was earmarked to ‘provide life-saving support to refugees, asylum seekers, and others impacted by conflict and food insecurity in the region,’ Blinken said in a statement last week.

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