Last foreign Darfur hostage released

Red Cross worker Gauthier Lefèvre has been freed after 147 days in captivity. Lefèvre, who has joint French and British nationality, was the last foreign hostage being held in the area.

Photo: Reuters

French Prime Minister François Fillon and President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed his liberation on Thursday.

35-year-old Lefèvre had been in captivity since 22 October, the longest hostage-taking since the beginning of the conflict in west Sudan in 2003.

He had worked in Darfur for five years and was captured by gunmen when driving in a clearly marked Red Cross vehicle near the Chad frontier. His kidnappers had demanded a million dollars to free him.

A number of humanitarian workers were kidnapped after the International Criminal Court issued a mandate for the arrest of President Omar al-Beshir in March 2009. Lefèvre is the last to be freed.

Two French aid workers were freed two days ago after being held in the Central African Republic near the Darfur border since November by a group calling itself the Eagles of Central Africa.