Romania thanks Morocco for ‘important support’ for release of hostage held in Sahel since 2015

Romania on Wednesday thanked the Kingdom of Morocco for its “important support” for the release of Romanian hostage Iulian Gherguț, who had been held in the Sahel region since 2015.

In a statement, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced the release of the security officer from a manganese mine in northern Burkina Faso, near the borders of Mali and Niger, who was kidnapped on April 4, 2015 by the Al Mourabitoun group, which has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), while thanking Morocco for its “important support” for his release.

According to the ministry, Iulian Gherguț is currently safe in Romania, where he returned on Wednesday.

For his part, President Klaus Iohannis thanked, via the social network X (formerly Twitter), the “external partners who supported” Romania “in this difficult undertaking.”