Jérôme Hugonot, a conservationist with dual French and Australian citizenship, has been kidnapped in north-eastern Chad and a search and rescue mission is underway, the Chad government has said.
Chad's government spokesman, Aziz Mahamat Saleh, said Mr Hugonot is an environmentalist who manages an oryx park on behalf of the NGO Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF).
"This kidnapping occurred yesterday in the afternoon of the 28th of October, in the province of Wadifira, in the north-eastern territory of Chad by individuals who are yet to be identified," Mr Saleh said in a statement.
"The government has mobilised all security and human means in order to get hold of the kidnappers and find [the man]," he said.
A spokesperson said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware of reports of the kidnap and the Australian Government is in contact with Chad and French authorities.
"Due to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further details," the spokesperson told the ABC.
France's foreign ministry also reported it was aware of a kidnapping of one of its citizens, and was in contact with their family and Chadian authorities to obtain a rapid release, a ministry source said.
SCF declined to comment under advice from the French foreign ministry.
Australia's mission in Chad could not be immediately reached.
Mr Hugonot migrated from France to Australia in 2002, then graduated from Murdoch University in 2010 as a veterinarian, according to an Instagram post by Murray Vet Services.
He spent his first year as a vet in Katherine, Northern Territory, working as a flying veterinarian.
After several years in equine practice in South Australia and Western Australia, Mr Hugonot and his wife went overseas for a three-year stint in Central Africa.
Mr Hugonot’s LinkedIn profile suggests he worked in Australia until 2019 before taking a job with a veterinary pharmaceutical lab and later travelling to Chad in 2021.
Jerome Hugonot was working for the Sahara Conservation Fund in Wadi Fara providence, near Sudan, when he was abducted on Friday, according to Chadian government authorities.
A veterinarian who interviewed Hugonot for a job in 2019 told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the environmentalist returned to WA from Africa that year to raise his daughter, but he was eventually lured back.
"He wanted to work in Australia since Africa wasn't a safe place to bring up his daughter," he said. "Apparently Africa drew him back with horrible consequences."
Hugonot's LinkedIn profile suggests he worked in Australia at the tail end of 2019 before taking a job with a veterinary pharmaceutical lab and later travelling to Chad in 2021.
ABC/wires
