French and U.S. hostages released in Niamey

STORY: Dubois was kidnapped in Mali in 2021, while Woodke was kidnapped in neighboring Niger in 2016.

Niger's interior minister Hamadou Adamou Souley told journalists that the two men had been held captive by JNIM, a West Africa-based affiliate of al Qaeda.

The circumstances of the two men's release was not immediately clear.