“It’s better to be dead than taken hostage.” When Jeff Woodke said those words, he didn’t know that he would be taken hostage from his home in Niger in 2016. But Woodke, a long-term relief and gospel worker in West Africa, did know there were risks. Risk wasn’t such a […]

In his first television interview, ABC News’ Matt Gutman spoke to Jeff Woodke about his six and a half years held hostage in West Africa by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists and his long road to recovery.

On Friday, March 31, 2023, McKinleyville, Calif., missionary Jeffery Woodke addressed reporters 11 days after his release from captivity in Niger, where he had been held hostage for six years, five months, five days and 12 hours.

In tonight’s edition: An American aid worker held by Islamist extremists for more than six years and France’s last hostage, a journalist abducted almost two years ago, have both been freed. The unexpected release of Jeffery Woodke and Olivier Dubois came on Monday as the men arrived in Niger’s capital. […]