Polish priest freed after Central Africa kidnapping

Warsaw: A Polish missionary who was abducted by armed rebels in the Central African Republic last month has been freed and is doing well, Poland`s foreign ministry said Wednesday.

"Father Mateusz Dziedzic has been released. His condition isn`t perfect but he`s feeling fine and there is no threat to his life," ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski told reporters.

The Roman Catholic priest was freed after negotiations involving several countries and international organisations, Wojciechowski said.

He singled out the role of France, the CAR`s former colonial power which has peacekeepers deployed in the country in a bid to stem ethnic and sectarian violence.

The priest had been living in Baboua, in western CAR, when he was kidnapped by armed men in mid-October.

The men said they wanted to trade him for one of their leaders detained in neighbouring Cameroon, according to the Polish branch of the Vatican`s Pontifical Mission Societies.

The branch said at the time that the kidnappers were working for rebel leader Abdoulaye Miskine -- a former ally of the Seleka, a mainly Muslim rebel coalition that held power in Bangui from March to December 2013.

Miskine was arrested last year on the border between Cameroon and the CAR and detained in Cameroon.

His group had been involved in kidnappings and in May the United States imposed sanctions on him and four others from the Central African Republic.