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On Tuesday, Nigerian authorities reported the kidnapping of an American in the village of Massalata in southwestern Niger on the border with Nigeria. Now apparently it has been possible to free the man. The United States Department of Defense announced this on Saturday. The victim was dragged across the border into Niger as a hostage by a group of armed men. Now the American citizen is safe again, no one was injured during the operation, he said. The US authorities did not provide any information on the identity of the kidnapped.
In a statement, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo praised “some of our bravest and most capable fighters” and promised: “We will never abandon an American hostage.”
There are repeated attacks by armed groups in Niger, especially in the west and southeast of the country. Several terrorist groups are active in the Sahel region, some of them have sworn allegiance to Al Qaeda or the “Islamic State”. Six French and two Nigerians recently died in a natural park south of Niger’s capital Niamey.
