Kidnapped French priest freed in Cameroon

This July 2011 handout photo provided by the Sceaux City Hall, north of Paris, shows French priest Georges Vandenbeusch. Vandenbeusch was kidnapped in Cameroon in mid-November has been set free, President Francois Hollande’s office said Tuesday Dec. 31, 2013. Vandenbeusch was kidnapped by heavily armed men on Nov. 13 in the far north of Cameroon, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the border with Nigeria. AP

YAOUNDÉ – A French Roman Catholic priest freed Tuesday after being held captive for seven weeks by Islamic militants in Cameroon said he was “in great shape” and thanked those who helped secure his release.

Georges Vandenbeusch, 42, was kidnapped on November 13 by heavily armed men who burst into his parish at night in the far north of the central African country and took him to neighboring Nigeria.

The radical Islamist movement Boko Haram, which has killed thousands of people in attacks against Christians and government targets in northern Nigeria, claimed responsibility for holding the French priest soon after he was kidnapped.

The Cameroonian army flew Vandenbeusch to the capital Yaounde and escorted him to the ambassador’s residence.

Later Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius arrived to pick him up, hailing the priest’s release as “the best end of year gift”.

While the circumstances of the priest’s release are unclear, Fabius insisted that France, often accused of paying ransoms for hostages despite stiff government denials, had not paid for the release of the priest.

“The French government does not pay ransoms. There were discussions,” Fabius told journalists.

Vandenbeusch described his time in captivity as a period of “terrible boredom, sadness and anger because I’m very fond of the parish where I worked” in Cameroon.

“I was under a tree for a month and a half,” he said, explaining that his two main guards spoke a local language and not English, he did not have anything to read, or a radio to listen to.

However, he said he had not been mistreated, despite being kept in “rustic conditions”.

“They even apologized several times,” the priest told journalists after arriving in the capital.

Vandenbeusch will be met by President Francois Hollande when he arrives in France on Wednesday morning at the military air base of Villacoublay near Paris.

The Vatican welcomed the priest’s release and called on the faithful to pray for those still being held around the world.

“We hope that all forms of violence, hatred and conflict in the tormented regions of Africa be stamped out, as well as elsewhere in the world,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

In his former parish of Sceaux, near Paris, the bells rang on Tuesday to celebrate his release.