Vélizy-Villacoublay (France) (AFP) - French journalist Olivier Dubois made an emotional return home on Tuesday following nearly two years in captivity in the Sahel, with his family and President Emmanuel Macron greeting him at an airport near Paris.
The 48-year-old stepped down from the plane and made a beeline to hug family members waiting for him on the tarmac of Villacoublay air base.
Macron embraced him in front of the cameras, in a brief break from domestic political turmoil over his government ramming through a divisive pensions reform.
Dubois, 48, was kidnapped in Mali on April 8, 2021.
He said in a video released by his captors that he was taken by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, which is linked to Al-Qaeda.
He and a US aid worker -- 61-year-old Jeffery Woodke, who was seized in southwest Niger in October 2016 -- arrived in the Niger capital, Niamey, on Monday after being freed.
"I feel tired but I'm fine," Dubois told journalists after his arrival on Monday.
"I want to pay tribute to Niger for its skills in this delicate mission and pay tribute to France, to all those who have helped me to be here today."
'Incredible'
Dubois had been living in Mali since 2015 and freelancing for the French daily Liberation when he was seized.
Details of the two men's release remain unclear, although Woodke told journalists Monday that he thanked the "Nigerien, American and French governments", adding: "Vive la France."
Niger Interior Minister Hamadou Souley, who was at Niamey airport, said: "The hostages were picked up safe and sound by the Nigerien authorities before being handed over to the French and American authorities."
The head of watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, said on Tuesday he did not know "why he had been freed or why now".
Dubois is believed to have been the only French citizen held hostage by a non-state actor following the release in Mali of aid worker Sophie Petronin in 2020.
Paris considers six citizens officially confirmed to be held behind bars in Iran as hostages of a state.
The journalist's sister Canele Bernard on Monday told AFP: "It's just incredible, it's something that we've been hoping for two years."
"The nightmare is over for him and for his family.He will be able to get on with living, although it will be hard for him to get over it."
At the Niamey airport on Monday, Woodke was at Dubois' side, leaning on a stick.
He was seized at gunpoint from his home in Abalak in the Tahoua region of southwestern Niger.
The 61-year-old had served as a missionary and humanitarian aid worker in Niger for 32 years, according to a supporters' website.
He was said to speak the local language Tamasheq fluently, as well as Fula and Arabic.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the freeing of Woodke and thanked the government of Niger, calling it "a critical partner in helping to secure his release."
Other Western hostages
The Sahel has been ravaged by a jihadist campaign that began in northern Mali in 2012.
In 2015, the insurgency swept into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
The violence has killed thousands of people and displaced millions from their homes, and increased risks for journalists and humanitarian workers.
Two International Committee of the Red Cross employees kidnapped in Mali earlier this year were released on Sunday.
At least three other Western hostages are believed to still be held in the Sahel.
Romanian mineworker Iulian Ghergut and elderly Australian surgeon Arthur Kenneth Elliott were both abducted in Burkina Faso, respectively in 2015 and 2016.
German priest Hans-Joachim Lohre is believed to have been taken hostage in Mali since late 2022.
Niger is an important Western ally in the troubled region, hosting a French military base and a US drone base.
