American held hostage in Africa freed

WASHINGTON — An American aid worker abducted by militants more than six years ago in West Africa has been freed, his wife and U.S. officials said Monday, but the circumstances of his release were not immediately clear.

The aid worker, Jeffery Woodke, was kidnapped in Niger in October 2016 and then was believed to have been taken to neighboring Mali.

His wife, Els Woodke, of McKinleyville, Calif., said the U.S. government had notified her that her husband had been freed. She was told he was in Niamey, the capital of Niger, and later spoke with him for an hour.

“He is safe,” she said in a phone interview. After she spoke with him, she said, he was in “great spirits.”

A U.S. official said Woodke, 62, was in Niamey and was being medically evaluated. Another senior administration official briefing reporters confirmed Woodke’s release and said the United States had not paid a ransom or made other concessions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as part of standard rules for security briefings.

President Joe Biden thanked Niger and “dedicated public servants across the U.S. government” for securing Woodke’s release. “We remain committed to keep faith with Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained all around the world, and there is no higher priority for this administration than our work to bring them home,” Biden said in a statement.

A French security official confirmed that another hostage had also been released: Olivier Dubois, a French journalist who went missing in Mali in April 2021 and was later seen in a hostage video issued by an al-Qaida affiliate there.

Woodke’s release ends an arduous ordeal in which U.S. officials believed at times that a dangerous military operation would have been required to free him.

There is no indication the United States mounted such a rescue or was involved in the release of the two men.

The senior administration official who briefed reporters said that while Woodke was captured in Niger, he appeared to have been taken across its borders. The official said Woodke was released outside Niger, in an area to the west that includes Mali and Burkina Faso.

The official did not specify what organization had taken Woodke, calling it a hostage-taking “network.”

The official added that another prisoner captured in Niger, whom the official did not name, was released by the same network about six months ago.