Foreign affairs
Report links cash and weapons to release of Swiss hostage in Niger
A report says weapons and several million dollars may have been handed to kidnappers in exchange for the release of Swiss national Claudia Abbt and Austrian Eva Gretzmacher, who were abducted in Niger in 2025. Switzerland’s foreign ministry says it has no knowledge of such arrangements and that Swiss authorities paid no ransom.
A reported exchange involving millions of dollars and a cache of weapons has put the release of two European hostages under fresh scrutiny. Swiss national Claudia Abbt, 69, and Austrian Eva Gretzmacher, 76, were abducted in Agadez, Niger, in 2025 and held for nearly two years. Libyan officials said the women reached Benghazi after their release on October 22, 2026.
Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported on November 10 that weapons and cash may have passed to the kidnappers as part of the operation. The account centres on Saddam Haftar, the eastern Libyan strongman who allegedly used regional networks to help secure the women’s freedom. A rebel group opposed to Haftar says it intercepted weapons and money intended for the kidnappers shortly after the release.
Switzerland’s foreign ministry said it had no knowledge of such arrangements and maintained that Swiss authorities paid no ransom. The competing accounts leave the alleged payments attributed to Libyan and regional actors, not to the Swiss government.
Trace the Weapons Route
Wardougou says his fighters seized 50 suicide drones and an assortment of other weapons from five men. Mohamed Wardougou, leader of the Southern Liberation Operations Room, told RTS that the men were linked to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and implicated in the abduction and transport of the two women.
He said the group arrested the five couriers in the Salvador Pass, a strategic desert crossroads between Niger, Libya and Algeria. According to Wardougou, they were returning from the Tamanhint military base in south-western Libya, where men loyal to Saddam Haftar had allegedly handed over money and military equipment.
The inventory Wardougou gave RTS included an RPG rocket launcher, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 10 Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles, alongside the 50 drones. He said each courier received 10 million CFA francs, approximately CHF 14,000, for transporting the hostages. Wardougou also said two similar deliveries of funds and military equipment had taken place earlier. The claims describe a supply chain reaching across a remote border region where armed groups and competing Libyan power centres operate.
Compare the Payment Claims
The alleged ransom has two competing price tags: $2.5 million in one account and $10 million in another. A source close to the negotiations told RTS that Saddam Haftar used $2.5 million of his own funds to pay for the women’s release. The source said Haftar wanted to strengthen his reputation and international standing. A local source told RTS the sum was negotiated downwards because Gretzmacher’s poor health threatened the outcome of the exchange.
Libya specialist Jalel Harchaoui, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, relayed a different account: sources suggested the United Arab Emirates paid $10 million. The UAE relies on the Haftar family to consolidate its influence in North Africa and the Sahel, according to RTS.
Harchaoui also said the UAE had paid $50 million in autumn 2025 to secure the release of a retired Emirati general with close ties to Dubai’s ruling family. The general had been abducted near Bamako, Mali, and held for one month. These figures come from separate accounts and are not presented as a single agreed payment.
Set Out Switzerland’s Position
Bern’s position is explicit: Swiss authorities paid no ransom and knew nothing of the reported arrangements. The foreign ministry’s statement draws a clear line between Switzerland’s official role and the accounts RTS gathered about Saddam Haftar and the UAE. The alleged payments, if made, were attributed to those external actors by people cited in the report.
The report also places Haftar’s role within a wider regional network. The rebel group that described the weapons seizure opposes him, while Harchaoui linked UAE support for the Haftar family to efforts to build influence across North Africa and the Sahel. RTS said enquiries to Saddam Haftar’s office and military staff went unanswered.
For Switzerland, the case combines the release of a Swiss citizen with a disputed account of how the operation was secured. Abbt and Gretzmacher returned from captivity after nearly two years, while the foreign ministry has rejected any suggestion that Swiss authorities financed a ransom. The allegations about weapons, cash and outside mediation remain attributed to the individuals and accounts reported by RTS.