CV NEWS FEED // A German priest and member of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa has been set free after spending over a year as a hostage of an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Mali.
Fr. Hans-Joachim Lohre, 66, was released on Sunday and brought back to Germany on an officially designated flight. Lohre disappeared in November 2022 after living in Mali for more than three decades, according to Vatican News.
At the time of his abduction, Lohre was on his way to celebrate Mass for a community of religious sisters in Kalaban Coura at 8:30 am on November 20, 2022. According to an RFI report, investigators found the cross Lohre wore around his neck on the ground near his abandoned car.
Three days after the priest’s disappearance, Cardinal Jean Zerbo issued a statement: “We have a special thought for [Fr. Lohre’s] biological family in Germany and we pray in communion with all people of will that the Lord will bring him back to us without delay and in good health.”
A report from Fides News agency attributes the priest’s abduction to the Islam and Muslim Support Group, which has been linked to al-Qaeda.
Lohre, otherwise known as “Ha-Jo,” was director of the Faith and Encounter Centre in Hamdallaye, and worked at the Mali Islamic-Christian Formation Institute (IFIC) prior to his disappearance.
Lohre lived in a residence at the Institute, which is located in Bamako, the capital city of Mali.
The terms of Lohre’s release, which was negotiated directly by the German government, remain unclear.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) called Lohre “an important reference person for interreligious dialogue,” and described the priest as “the foundation’s contact person in the West African nation,” according to the Association for Catholic Information in Africa.
Lohre is the second German hostage to be released from Sehel in the past year, following the December 2022 release of Jörg Lange, an aid worker who was abducted in western Niger in April 2018.
Fides reported several foreign hostages still being held in Sahel, including an Italian couple and their son.
