Romanian hostage freed from Burkina Faso after 8 years in captivity, Romania’s foreign ministry says

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Romania’s foreign ministry says a Romanian citizen who was abducted in northeast Burkina Faso in 2015 where he was working at a mine, has been released. Iulian Ghergut, who was 39 years old when a militant group linked to al-Qaida captured him at the mine where he was working as a security officer, was released and is safe on Romanian soil. Ghergut was the first hostage recorded in the West African nation since the early 2000s, when armed groups linked to al-Qaeda became active across the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa.