He was known to be the oldest Western hostage in the Sahel. The Romanian Iulian Ghergut is free, the announcement was made this Wednesday afternoon by the authorities in Bucharest. Iulian Ghergut, detained in Mali, was kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2015.
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Security officer in the Tambao manganese mine in the far north of Burkina Faso, Iulian Ghergut was kidnapped from his workplace.
A kidnapping claimed a month later by Abou Walid Sahraoui, one of the executives of the al-Mourabitoune group, who called ” the Romanian government to negotiate the release “. At the end of August 2015, four months after the kidnapping, a video of the hostage speaking French was sent by the kidnappers. It is one of the last and rare proofs of life, because the trace of Iulian Ghergut will then be lost in the Sahara. In 2018, the family received a few photos.
The American hostage Jeffery Woodke had crossed paths with him
Released last March, American Jeff Woodke detained by the Jnim, said that he had met the Romanian hostage once, for two weeks, without having been able to speak to him. ” We communicated by signs, with the hands, told Jeffery Woodke on RFI. I made him a promise to work for him when I’m free “.
The reaction of former American hostage Jeffery Woodke to the release of Iulian Gherghut
A release therefore announced by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which indicates that Iulian Ghergut “ is currently safe in the territory of Romania » and who thanks Morocco for its « great support in this liberation. Thanks also to the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, who praised on social networks “ the external partners who have supported Romania in this difficult undertaking “.
Abducted in 2015, Iulian Ghergut spent 8 years in detention, he is now 47 years old.