Three officials kidnapped in the Central African Republic on election day last December have returned to the capital, Bangui, after ten months in captivity, Africanews reports. They arrived on a special United Nations flight and were welcomed by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.
The group, a local sub-prefect and two officials from the national electoral body, were seized in Bambouti. Sub-prefect Koumba Ndiaye described their time in the bush as extremely hard.
Their release followed months of negotiations by MINUSCA, the UN peacekeeping mission, with the Azandé armed group that held them. The group appeared in the Haut-Mbomou region in 2023 with the aim of driving out Union for Peace rebels, and its fighters were trained by the former Russian paramilitary Wagner group, according to the report.
Source: Africanews
