Aleksandra Kuligowska, a volunteer at a hospital run by the Caritas Catholic charity, was abducted on Friday.

"She is safe and healthy, which I have told those close to her by telephone. I thank local forces and our French allies for their actions," foreign affairs minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X, formerly Twitter.

Meanwhile, Poland's defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz on X addressed his "warmest thanks to French defence minister (Sebastien) Lecornu and to the French soldiers, thanks to whom the Polish woman was released," without giving further details on how she was freed.

He said she would soon return to Poland.

Sikorski shared a video of him talking by telephone, apparently to Kuligowski's relatives, telling them: "Your prayers have been heard, your daughter will soon be home."

Chadian and French forces based in the central African state had been looking for Kuligowska, who was seized with a Mexican colleague from the St Michel hospital in Dono Manga, southern Chad.

No group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and the Mexican national was later abandoned.

Armed bandits frequently kidnap Chadians for ransom in the region, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of the capital N'Djamena.

Two armed men accompanying a fake patient went to the hospital to carry out the abduction, according to Tandjile province governor Ildjima Abdraman.

The two doctors were taken away on motorbikes, the official added. Security forces gave chase and the Mexican doctor was left at the roadside but the group kept Kuligowska.

bo/tw/bc/gv

X