The Last French Hostage Held By Islamist Militants in Mali Has Been Released

The last French hostage being held captive by Islamist militants in Mali has been freed after three years in captivity, French officials announced on Tuesday.

France's President François Hollande announced the release around this afternoon, saying, "Our hostage Serge Lazarevic, our last hostage, is free. I have just received confirmation from the President of Niger."

French and Dutch hostages plead for lives in video posted by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Read more here.

Hollande announces Lazarevic's release - lemonde.fr

Lazarevic was seized by al Qaeda militants in northern Mali, a group called al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), in November 2011. Another Frenchman captured with Lazarevic, Philippe Verdon, was shot dead last year by his captors in response to the French intervention in Mali.

Lazarevic had been accompanying Verdon on a business trip. According to reports, the two Frenchmen — both geologists — were surveying the region when they were abducted from their hotel in northern Mali.

In a video released by AQIM on November 17, 50-year-old Lazarevic appealed to French President François Hollande to negotiate his release, saying, "I am the last. I hope not to be the eighth on the list of French killed in the Sahel."

Jihadists suspected of killing UN Peacekeepers in Mali. Read more here.

In the video, a gaunt-looking Lazarevic urged Hollande to follow US President Barack Obama's example, referring to the release of American Army Sergeant Bowe Berghdal, who was held hostage in Afghanistan for nearly five years before being swapped for five Taliban leaders in a prisoner exchange carried out by the US government in May.

Speaking to French radio station RTL the day after the video surfaced, Lazarevic's daughter Diane had expressed concern over her father's health following three years in captivity. She appealed to the French head of state, asking him to double down on efforts to free her father.

"I'm hoping for Christmas," she said at the time. "It's a symbolic date and I know that practically all the hostages were freed on symbolic dates."

Diane Lazarevic speaking on RTL

Hollande said that Lazarevic would soon be reunited with his daughter in Niamey, the capital of Niger. According to France 2, a presidential plane is already on its way to Niamey with Lazarevic's daughter on board.

The former hostage was freed near Kidal, in northern Mali, and is now en route to the capital under a Malian security escort. Lazarevic and his family will receive an official welcome by the president upon their return to France.

In an official statement released on Tuesday, Hollande's office thanked authorities in Mali and Niger for " working towards this happy outcome." Hollande singled out Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou and Mali's President Modibo Keita, "applauding their personal commitment" to the release.

Politicians across France welcomed the release, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy, recently elected head of the main opposition party, who tweeted, "I am tremendously relieved to learn of the release of Serge Lazarevic, the last French hostage in the world."

C'est avec un immense soulagement que j'apprends la libération de Serge Lazarevic, qui était le dernier otage français dans le monde.

— Nicolas Sarkozy (@NicolasSarkozy)9 Décembre 2014

Details about the release have yet to be confirmed. When contacted by VICE News, the French foreign affairs ministry declined to comment, and referred us back to the official statement. While the official line is that France does not pay ransoms for the release of hostages, reports to the contrary have surfaced in the past year.

There was speculation this year that four French journalists kidnapped in Syria in June 2013 and released in April 2014, were freed only after payment of an $18 million dollar ransom.

Two days prior to Lazarevic's release, Malian news site sahelien.com — a relatively new media outlet created in February 2014 by journalists from Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso — published an article announcing the pending release of the French hostage.

Exclusif/— sahelien.com (@sahelien_com)7 Décembre 2014

In the article, an elected official from Northern Mali, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that, "on Saturday, two AQIM prisoners, Mohamed Ali Ag Wadossene and Heiba Ag Acherif, were transferred from the jail in Bamako to Niger, where a hostage negotiator was waiting for them, to trade them for French hostage Serge Lazarevic."

Following Lazarevic's release, David Thomspon, a reporter with French public radio RFI and an expert on jihadist groups, revealed on Twitter that the two prisoners in question had taken part in Lazarevic's abduction in 2011.

Les 2 touareg d'AQMI libérés en échange de Lazarevic sont les mêmes qui avaient organisé son enlèvement et celui de Verlon en 2011 à Hombori

— David Thomson (@_DavidThomson)9 Décembre 2014

French soldier killed in mali in clash with armed terrorists. Read more here.

Follow Étienne Rouillon on Twitter: @rouillonetienne