Freed Niger hostages to meet Sarkozy

AFP

PARIS — Three nationals of France, Madagascar and Togo freed after being taken hostage by an Al-Qaeda regional offshoot in Niger were to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday, officials said.

"The president of the republic will receive the three hostages and their families at 2:30 pm (1330 GMT)," a source close to the presidency told AFP.

The three were freed overnight Friday in Niger territory. The details of how they were freed were unclear. A source said a ransom had been paid but declined to disclose the amount.

France Info radio reported Saturday that a French government plane had brought the French hostage, Françoise Larribe, to a military airport near Paris. An ambulance was later seen leaving the airport, France Info reported.

Larribe is suffering from cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy shortly before she was abducted.

A total of seven hostages including four other French nationals -- an executive of French nuclear giant Areva among them -- were seized in September in the west African country's uranium-mining town of Arlit and then taken into Mali. But they were later scattered and moved outside the country.

The group's abduction was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), whose leader warned France to pull its troops out of Afghanistan if it wanted to see the safe return of the French hostages.