Jérôme Hugonnot, a French-Australian dual national who manages an oryx park in Chad, has been released by his kidnappers after three days in captivity.
Hugonnot was working at an oryx park on behalf of the Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF) in the Wadi Fira region when he was kidnapped on Friday.
On Sunday, Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby announced that Hugonnot had been released.
“Following the release of the hostage Jérôme Hugonnot, I am delighted with this happy ending and congratulate the efforts made within the framework of this release,” Déby said via Twitter.
The landlocked country is currently run by a military junta led by Mahamat Idriss Déby since his father and former president Idriss Déby died in April last year.
Last week, at least 50 people were killed and 300 injured in protests across the country as they demanded for a quicker transition to democratic rule, after Déby pushed back elections to October 2024.
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