He put his life "in the service of humanitarian aid," and Jörg Lange was abducted in Niger in 2018. The development worker had to stay with his kidnappers for four and a half years. Now he can finally hug his family again.
More than four years after the kidnapping of a development worker from the German aid organization Help in Niger, the organization has confirmed the release of the 63-year-old. According to the "Bild" newspaper, the kidnappers associated with the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) handed the 63-year-old over to Moroccan mediators. "We are very relieved and grateful that our colleague Jörg Lange can return to his family after more than four and a half years," said the Help association in Bonn.
Help Managing Director Bianca Kaltschmitt thanked everyone "who participated or supported this release, in particular the crisis team of the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Criminal Police Office and other German authorities involved as well as authorities and friends in Mali, Niger and neighboring countries".
Lange was Help's country director for Niger when he was kidnapped on April 11, 2018 in the West African Sahel state. The perpetrators are said to have initially demanded $20 million for his release.
The engineer put his life "in the service of humanitarian aid," the Help statement said. For him, his work for people in need, which has lasted for more than three decades, is "a calling and a job". Lange's abduction had occurred in the western Tillaberi region. At the time, armed jihadists were active in the border region with Mali.
In the west, Niger shares a long border with the crisis-ridden state of Mali, where the German armed forces are involved in the UN mission Minusma. Numerous Islamist groups are active in the area, kidnapping people again and again in order to get money for their fights. At the end of November, the federal government announced that the Bundeswehr would withdraw from the UN Minusma mission in Mali by May 2024.
