Two European women freed after 18 months in captivity

NIAMEY (AP): Two women from Austria and Switzerland have been freed in Niger after spending more than a year and a half in captivity, officials and local media reported Thursday. The Austrian woman, an aid worker identified as Eva G, was received by the Austrian crisis team on Thursday, Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said in a statement. She was kidnapped in Niger’s Agadez city in January last year, months before the Swiss citizen was abducted in the same city in April 2025.