A Polish doctor who was kidnapped by armed men in Chad last week has been freed in a daring rescue operation by French and Chadian forces, officials said on Thursday.
Aleksandra Kuligowska, a volunteer at a hospital run by Catholic charity Caritas, was abducted on Friday near the southern town of Dono Manga, along with a Mexican colleague who was later released.
She was held hostage for five days in a dense forest, where her kidnappers fired at a helicopter that tried to rescue her on Wednesday night.
The helicopter, which was part of a joint operation by French and Chadian forces, managed to distract the kidnappers and allow ground troops to advance and rescue the doctor.
“All the kidnappers were killed. There were three of them,” local governor Ildjima Abdraman told news agency AFP.
Ms Kuligowska was flown to the capital, N’Djamena, where she was described as “weakened and traumatised” but well.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski thanked the local forces and the French allies for their actions, saying on X, formerly Twitter, that Ms Kuligowska was “safe and healthy”.
Poland’s Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz also expressed his gratitude to his French counterpart and the French troops, adding that Ms Kuligowska would return to Poland “soon”.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, which was the first of its kind in Chad, a landlocked country that borders Libya, Sudan and Nigeria.
France has a long-standing military presence in Chad, where it has about 1,000 troops as part of its anti-jihadist operation in the Sahel region.
However, France’s role in the region has been challenged by recent coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which have expelled French soldiers from their countries.
French military forces have withdrawn from Niger, with the first group of troops departing for France under the protection of the Nigerien Armed Forces.
French soldiers left their bases in Niger on October in a ground convoy under local escort, “heading for Chad”, said the military regime in power in Niamey since the end of July.
This operation aims to bring all French soldiers back to France by the end of 2023. The withdrawal follows a September announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron that France would recall its ambassador and end all military cooperation with Niger in response to a coup.
French military involvement in the Sahel region had been part of Operation Barkhane, which aimed to counter Islamist extremist groups.