WASHINGTON — An American assist employee kidnapped by militants greater than six years in the past in West Africa has been freed, his spouse and a senior navy official stated on Monday, however the circumstances of his launch weren’t instantly clear.

The help employee, Jeffery Woodke, was kidnapped in Niger in October 2016 after which was believed to have been taken to neighboring Mali.

His spouse, Els Woodke, of McKinleyville, Calif., stated the US authorities had notified her that her husband had been freed. She stated she was instructed that he was in Niamey, the capital of Niger.

“He’s protected,” she stated in a cellphone interview. “I don’t but know if he’s wholesome.”

A U.S. official confirmed that Mr. Woodke was in Niamey and stated he was being medically evaluated. One other senior administration official briefing reporters confirmed Mr. Woodke’s launch, and stated that the US had not paid a ransom or made different concessions. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a part of normal guidelines for safety briefings.

Jake Sullivan, the president’s nationwide safety adviser, thanked Niger “for its assist in bringing him dwelling” in a Twitter message.

A French safety official confirmed that one other hostage had additionally been launched: Olivier Dubois, a French journalist who went lacking in Mali in April 2021, and was later seen in a hostage video issued by an affiliate of Al Qaeda there.

Mr. Woodke’s launch ends of an arduous ordeal during which U.S. officers believed at instances {that a} harmful navy operation would have been required to free him. There isn’t any indication that the U.S. mounted such a rescue.

However Mr. Woodke’s kidnapping performed a job in a deadly ambush of American troopers in West Africa.

In October 2017, American troopers raced to a location within the scrubland of Niger after intelligence officers intercepted a sign from the cellphone of a terrorist often known as Doundoun Cheffou, a senior lieutenant of a former affiliate of Al Qaeda that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Mr. Cheffou was being tracked by American intelligence businesses each due to his seniority within the terrorist group and since he was suspected of getting performed a job in Mr. Woodke’s kidnapping.

The nighttime raid failed to search out Mr. Cheffou, however hours later 4 of the People have been killed in an ambush close to the village of Tongo Tongo.

The senior administration official who briefed reporters stated that whereas Mr. Woodke was captured in Niger, he seems to have been taken throughout its borders into different nations. The official stated that Mr. Woodke was launched exterior of Niger, in an space to the nation’s west that features Mali and Burkina Faso.

The official didn’t specify what group had taken Mr. Woodke, calling it a hostage-taking “community.”

The official added that one other prisoner captured in Niger, whom the official didn’t title, was launched by the identical community about six months in the past

The official stated that efforts to launch Mr. Woodke had been underway for a very long time and that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who stopped in Niger throughout a go to to Africa final week, had “confirmed” the discharge whereas there.

The official stated that France — which is Niger’s former colonial ruler and maintains ties with its authorities — had additionally performed an essential position in securing Mr. Woodke’s launch.

Rukmini Callimachi and Michael Crowley contributed reporting.