A Franco-Australian national working in a wildlife reserve in northeastern Chad has been abducted by as yet unidentified individuals “: the incident took place on Friday, October 28, but was not communicated by the government until the next day. Jérome Hugonnot, 51, manager of a park in the northeast of the country was traveling with two companions when their vehicle was targeted by an ambush in the middle of the Chadian desert.
With our correspondent in Ndjamena, Madjiasra Nako
He was returning from the capital and was on his way to the life base of the Ouadi-Rimé Oryx reserve, a wildlife park that covers more than 77,000 square km and is shared by several provinces in the center, north and eastern Chad.
Friday afternoon, while Jérome Hugonnot and two of his companions were less than 20 km from their destination, six men emerged from the bushes intercepting their vehicle. The three passengers are extracted, their eyes blindfolded by the assailants who tied them up. The kidnappers leave the scene taking with them the Franco-Australian and his vehicle. His two companions will take hours to find a way to raise the alarm.
In a press release released this Saturday, the government says it has deployed “ all safe and humane means to get hold of the kidnappers and find the hostage who is not on his first trip to the country: he has worked in several parks in Chad and had never had the slightest problem so far, according to a security source.
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