French soldier makes daring escape through wilderness after being kidnapped & kept captive for MONTH by gang in Colombia

NewsWorld News A FRENCH soldier held hostage by a Colombian gang for one month made a daring escape through the woods – spending four days alone in the wilderness. Jose Olger Melo Charry, 35, and a woman he was travelling with were “intercepted and taken prisoner” by a group of rebels on August 6. The French Foreign Legion soldier was taken hostage on August 6 Credit: X The EMC is a splinter group of the FARC Credit: AFP – Getty The woman was released just hours after being seized but the soldier was held for over four weeks. After ditching his captors, he spent four days in the wild without any help or supplies. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! The soldier is originally from Colombia but serves as a corporal in the French Foreign Legion. He was taken hostage by a faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) called the Central General Staff (EMC). Jose Olger Melo Charry, 35, spent one month under captivity Credit: X/Fs_francaises_ The soldier was kidnapped by dissidents of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC (stock) Credit: AFP or licensors FARC dissidents are ex-troops who refused to give up their weapons after making peace with the Colombian government in 2016. Charry was airlifted to hospital by the Colombian army on Sunday morning from Ejido to Pasto. He was “taken to a medical center where he remains under observation” and with loved ones, according to local media. Authorities are waiting to question him and inquire more about the four days he spent in the wilderness as well as the month he spent captured. Most read in The Sun He reportedly appears to be in relatively good health and hasn’t suffered any major injuries, according to local paper El Tiempo. Charry has served in the French army for four years and went to Colombia on August 5 while on leave. He was taken by the rebels while travelling on a rural road in Nariño – his home region in the southwest of the country. The Colombian guerrilla group EMC, the main dissident faction of the former FARC, claimed responsibility for his capture. They said: “We inform the French authorities, his family, and his friends that Corporal Melo Charry is alive, in perfect health, and that he has received medical care and adequate nutrition.” The group called him a “prisoner of war” and rejected the “term ‘kidnapping’ used by the Colombian authorities and the media”. The French Ministry of Defense previously said “the case is being closely monitored”. They confirmed he is “a soldier in the Foreign Legion of Colombian nationality”. The French Foreign Legion is an elite unit of the Army composed mainly of volunteers from several nationalities who serve in international operations. Comment now