Kidnapped French conservationist released in eastern Chad

PARIS (AP) — A French citizen working in wildlife conservation has been released after being abducted two days earlier in northeastern Chad, France announced Sunday.

“France thanks Chadian authorities who worked towards the release,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding that French diplomats remain “mobilized” to help Jerome Hugonnot and his family.

Hugonnot was working for the Sahara Conservation Fund in Chad’s Wadi Fara province that borders Sudan at the time of his abduction Friday by unknown kidnappers, according to the Chadian government spokesman Aziz Mahamat Saleh. A number of armed groups operate along the Chad-Sudan border.

The Sahara Conservation Fund and its partners have spent years in Chad working to reintroduce a species of desert antelope known as the scimitar-horned oryx.