French Boko Haram Hostage in Nigeria Escapes

A French engineer, who had been held hostage by Islamist militants in northern Nigeria for almost a year, has escaped his jailers, France President, Francois Hollande said on Sunday.

Hollande gave no details about the escape, but a Nigerian police official said Francis Collomp, who is over 60, had slipped out of his cell and managed to find a motorcycle taxi which took him to a police station.

Collomp was seized when about 30 gunmen stormed his compound on December 19 in the northern Nigerian town of Rimi, close to the Niger border where al Qaeda's North African wing, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), operates.

"The president expresses his gratitude to the Nigerian authorities, with whom French authorities have collaborated closely on this decisive action," Hollande's office said in a statement on Sunday.

Arriving in Israel for a state visit, Hollande later said Collomp had freed himself and that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who arrived in Israel with Hollande, was flying to Nigeria to receive him.

Nigerian Police commissoner Olufemi Adenaike said Collomp had been moved to the town of Zaria, in northern Nigeria, in the past three months and had fled from there.

"He escaped yesterday in Zaria and boarded a commercial motorcycle taxi to the nearest police station," Adenaike said.

"We handed him over to the French embassy this morning," he added.