Francis Collomp: daring escape story |
The French hostage held for 11 months by Ansaru terror group in Nigeria
told French television on Thursday he made his audacious run for freedom
after his captor left a key in the door by mistake.
Francis Collomp, speaking on the TF1 channel, described how on the night
of November 16 one of his captors entered the dungeon where he was kept
to perform the ablutions required for Islamic prayer, but left the keys
in the door.
“While he was in the bathroom, very quietly I opened the closed door. I
had all my things ready to leave and then I locked it (behind me),” the
63-year-old engineer said.
“I ran into an alley towards the main road, then on the road I started walking quickly so that no one would notice me,” he said.
After trekking for four to five kilometres, Collomp found a motorcycle
taxi, which took him to a police station in Zaria, a nearby town.
The Frenchman was abducted at gunpoint in Katsina state last December,
and was held for nine months in the city of Kano before he was brought
to Zaria, around 160 kilometres (100 miles) away by road to the
southwest, two months ago.
Collomp said he was “in the loop” about negotiations for his release,
and was spurred to action after failing to be freed in early summer and
with the unlucky fate of others in his position on his mind.
“I should have been freed in June but that didn’t happen. Then they told
me that things had hit a dead end. I also knew the story of the
journalists that were killed, and that had an effect on me,” he said,
referring to the two French radio correspondents kidnapped and murdered
by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Mali on November 2.
Collomp prepared his escape for months, he said, walking up to 15
kilometres a day in circles in his cell to stay fit, anticipating a long
walk awaiting him outside.
He lost 38 kilos in total, admitting he had been “on the heavy side” beforehand.
French President Francois Hollande compared Collomp’s escape to “an
adventure story” on the day of his return to France, saying he was proud
of his compatriot and his “exceptional courage”.
A Roman Catholic priest, 42-year-old Georges Vandenbeusch, was kidnapped
in northern Cameroon and reportedly taken by Islamist militants to
Nigeria in mid-November.
France now has seven hostages officially being held abroad, including
the priest, four journalists in Syria and two people taken in Mali.
Source: PM News
Source: PM News
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