French hostage freed in DR Congo

Paris - 28 May 2017 : A Frenchman who was abducted in early March in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been freed, the office of President Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday.

Macron praised the DR Congo authorities "for their mobilisation and the effectiveness of their action" in obtaining the hostage's release, the office said in a statement, without identifying him.

Contacted by AFP, the president's office had no further information.

The French foreign ministry announced on March 2 that armed kidnappers had seized five gold mine workers, including a Frenchman, in eastern DR Congo.

The hostages worked for Banro, a Canadian gold mining corporation that runs two mines in DR Congo and is exploring for the mineral elsewhere in the vast, resource-rich country.
The fate of the other people kidnapped was not known.

The French foreign ministry, which did not give the nationalities of the other victims, said it had no information on the identity of the attackers.