Niger’s junta has thanked the forces of Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar for helping to free five hostages held by fighters aiming to undo the west African country’s coup, state media reported Tuesday.
Their liberation is the latest sign of collaboration between Haftar’s administration, which rivals the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli, and the Nigerien junta, which has turned its back on the West since seizing power in a coup.
Niger and Libya share a 342-kilometre (210-mile) border across a vast desert region home to armed groups hostile to the junta and known for the smuggling of migrants, weapons and drugs.
A prefect and four soldiers were abducted near the Libyan border by the Patriotic Front for Justice (FPJ), which fights for the return to power of Niger’s democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum, toppled by the junta in July 2023.
“The five ex-hostages kidnapped in June 2024 in the north of Niger have arrived in Niamey aboard a plane after the liberation thanks to the involvement and support of the Libyan authorities in Benghazi,” national broadcaster Voix du Sahel reported Tuesday.
Haftar’s Benghazi-based government seized control of the south and east of Libya in the unrest following the aftermath of the NATO-backed uprising that saw the downfall of longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Welcoming the freed captives on their arrival in the capital on Sunday, Niger’s Interior Minister, General Mohamed Toumba, thanked Haftar’s son, General Saddam Haftar, for his “involvement in the release of the hostages kidnapped by criminal bandits”.
Saddam Haftar had visited Niger in May, holding a meeting with the head of the junta, General Abdourahamane Tiani.
While the junta has not disclosed the circumstances or release date of the five hostages, the Nigerien press reported the quintet were freed at the end of October and then taken to the southern Libyan town of Qatrun.
Commander Amadou Torda, the prefect of Bilma in north Niger, was among those abducted on June 21, 2024, according to the interior ministry.
Along with the other hostages, Torda was filmed in a video released in July 2024, in which the prefect said they were being held by the FPJ.
In February Haftar’s forces arrested another anti-junta leader, Mahamoud Sallah, whose Patriotic Liberation Front (FPL), has claimed several attacks against the army in Bilma, as well as the sabotage of a crucial crude oil pipeline to Benin.
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