A French aid worker kidnapped in Mali in 2016 and the country's main opposition leader have landed to emotional reunions with their families after their release, along with two Italian hostages.
An inmate armed with a homemade weapon took two guards hostage at a high-security prison in northwest France on Tuesday before both were freed unharmed five hours later, authorities said.
Twelve flight staff from Air France have been rescued safely from a hotel in Mali, where gunmen are currently holding a reported 170 hostages. Paris has sent an elite French unit to Bamako.
Quivering hostages, burning money and the moans of the wounded: One of the most detailed accounts yet has emerged from the standoff at the deadliest scene of the Paris terror attacks.
Frenchwoman Isabelle Prime, who was kidnapped in war-ravaged Yemen on February 24, has been freed and will return home "in the coming hours", the French presidency said late on Thursday.
The father of a French woman taken hostage in Yemen on Tuesday called on her kidnappers "to show their humanity" and set her free along with the Yemeni woman taken at the same time.
Two aid workers, including a 67-year-old French woman, were kidnapped on Monday in the capital of the strife-torn Central African Republic, the French government said.
Elite French police stormed a printworks and a Jewish supermarket Friday, killing two brothers wanted for the Charlie Hebdo attack and a gunman linked to them in a dramatic end to twin sieges that rocked France.
For Didier the salesman, a humdrum meeting with a client at a printing business outside of Paris on Friday turned into a run-in with France's most wanted men as he "shook hands" with one of the magazine massacre suspects.
France's last remaining hostage, Serge Lazarevic, arrived back in Paris on Wednesday after being held for three years by Islamist militants. As he touched down he was greeted by French President François Hollande.
Some of the suspects in the kidnapping and beheading of French tourist Hervé Gourdel in Algeria have been identified, a minister in the north African country said on Tuesday.
An Algerian group linked to Isis on Monday threatened to kill a kidnapped Frenchman within 24 hours unless Paris halts air strikes on the Islamic militants in Iraq. France has vowed not to negotiate.
The French press has reported the suspected gunman behind the massacre at a Brussels Jewish museum allegedly bragged he was going to carry out a terror attack in Paris "five times" worse than the bloody killing spree of Mohamed Merah. But prosecutors are denying there's any evidence he said that.
French President François Hollande has vowed to find out the truth behind the death of a French hostage in Mali and promised "it will not go unpunished". It comes after a jihadist group announced on Wednesday the death of Frenchman Gilberto Rodrigues Leal.
A French engineer abducted by Islamist militants in Nigeria and held for 11 months arrived back in France on Monday after managing to escape his kidnappers.
A Franco-American photographer freed from captivity in Syria last week was kidnapped by a "Syrian militia" and held for 81 days, his photo agency Polaris Images said.
A prisoner serving time for murder took a staff member hostage at the 'Maison Centrale' (high security prison) in Arles, southern France on Friday, before the episode ended peacefully within hours.
French President François Hollande on Friday 'demanded the release' of two French reporters, who have gone missing in Syria. Their employer, Europe 1 radio, said there has been no word from the two men for the past 24 hours.
Charles Ballard left a career in finance to do aid work in Afghanistan. Back home in France after being held hostage for 71 days in a toilet, he says he has no regrets.
Kidnappers have apologized to the wife of a Frenchman they took hostage in Madagascar this week after admitting they got the wrong man. Despite the mistake the hostage takers are still demanding a €244,000 ransom payment.
A French hostage has been executed in Mali, a man claiming to be a spokesman for Al-Qaeda in North Africa told Mauritania's ANI news agency late on Tuesday. Paris has not confirmed the report.
