German aid worker Jörg Lange — held hostage in the Sahel for more than 4 1/2 years — has been freed, the humanitarian organization he works for said Saturday.

"We are very relieved and grateful that our colleague Jorg Lange can return to his family after more than 4 1/2 years," said Bianca Kaltschmitt, managing director of the Help organization.

The group's statement did not provide details of how or where the 63-year-old engineer was released but thanked Germany's Foreign Ministry, criminal police and the authorities in Mali, Niger and other neighboring countries for contributing to his release.

German weekly magazine Der Spiegel quoted security sources as saying that Lange was "in good health, given the circumstances."

Moroccan spy agency helped secure release

The magazine said his freedom was facilitated by the Moroccan secret services' contacts with jihadi groups in the Sahel.

Der Spiegel said Lange would be repatriated on a German army plane.

Lange, the Niger country director for Help, was kidnapped by armed men riding motorcycles on April 11, 2018, near Ayorou in western Niger, in a region near the Malian border frequently hit by jihadi attacks.

His Nigerian driver was freed shortly afterward, but according to German media, Lange was sold to the local affiliate of the so-called Islamic State (IS) armed group.

German media reported that the kidnappers sought a seven-figure ransom sum and urged Berlin not to try to drag out negotiations.

The government considered deploying KSK special forces to free Lange, but decided the operation would be too risky, Der Spiegel said. 

Decadelong Sahel conflict 

The Sahel conflict began in northern Mali in 2012, spread to Burkina Faso and Niger in 2015, and now Gulf of Guinea states are suffering sporadic attacks from Islamist militants.

Across the three nations, thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced, and devastating damage has been inflicted on three of the poorest economies in the world.

Jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida and IS have for seven years been using hostages held for ransom to fund and expand their operations in the Sahel, the vast expanse south of the Sahara Desert. 

At least 25 foreigners and many locals have been kidnapped in the region since 2015, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Five foreigners remain captive, including Rev. Hans-Joachim Lohre, a German priest kidnapped in Mali's capital Bamako in November.

Others still detained include French journalist Olivier Dubois, who was kidnapped last April from northern Mali, US national Jeffery Woodke, Australian doctor Ken Elliott and Romanian national Iulian Ghergut, who was abducted from a mine in Burkina Faso and has been held since 2015.

mm/fb (AFP, AP)