French Man Kidnapped Near Chad Border

A French man was kidnapped in Chad in a remote area near the border with Sudan’s Darfur region early on Thursday, France’s foreign ministry said.

Europe 1 radio said the man in his sixties had been working for a mining company and was seized carrying the staff’s wages, without giving its sources.

The man was kidnapped south of Abeche, a mining area about 800 km (500 miles) east of the capital N’Djamena, a French military source told Reuters.

There were no immediate reports of any group claiming responsibility or making demands in the area crossed by nomadic groups and rebels fighting the Sudanese government over the border in Darfur.

The last French national kidnapped in Chad was an aid worker taken in the eastern border area in 2009 and released nearly three months later inside Darfur.

“We confirm the kidnapping of one of our nationals in Chad,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement. “We are mobilized and working with local Chadian authorities to secure the freedom of our compatriot.”

Chad, a landlocked former French colony, hosts the headquarters of France’s 4,000-strong regional anti-militant operation, known as Barkhane.

It closed its northern border with Libya in January to block militants fleeing the conflict there, and has said it is worried about Islamic State operating in its territory.

Around 1,000 French troops are stationed in Chad, including a small detachment at Abeche. About 1,500 other French nationals also live in the country.

Two other French nationals are being held in Africa – one kidnapped in Mali in December by Islamist militants, the other seized in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier in March.