VIENNA, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Austria said on Friday it had “encouraging news” about an Austrian woman taken hostage in 2025 in Niger but her release was not yet complete, while Switzerland said it was checking reports a Swiss woman kidnapped in Niger had been freed.
The Austrian, identified by Austrian authorities as Eva G, who is in her 70s, was kidnapped in the desert town of Agadez in central Niger in January 2025. Little information has been released about which group is holding her or what demands have been made. She had been living in Niger for years.
“There is encouraging news regarding the fate of Eva G,” Austria’s foreign ministry said in a one-paragraph statement.
“The complex and very dangerous release and handover process has, however, not yet been completed successfully,” it said, declining to elaborate.
Niger, like its neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, is battling a jihadist insurgency linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that spun out of a Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali in 2012. The fighting has killed thousands and displaced millions across West Africa’s central Sahel region over the past decade.
Kidnappings appeared to intensify in Niger last year. The Swiss woman was taken hostage in April 2025.
“The FDFA (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs) is aware of reports that the Swiss hostage kidnapped in Niger in April 2025 has been released. Efforts to verify that are underway,” the Swiss foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it would comment further once verified information was available.
It did not name the hostage or identify the reports it was referring to.
(Reporting by Francois MurphyEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
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