BERLIN: Two German archaeologists who were kidnapped while working at a dig site in northern Nigeria last week have been released and are doing well, the German foreign ministry said Sunday.

“The two archaeologists from the Goethe University in Frankfurt are free. They are in the care of the German embassy in Abuja,” a source at the ministry told AFP.

“They are doing well under the circumstances,” the source added, without providing further details.

The pair, who were working with Nigeria’s National Commission for Museum and Monuments, were abducted on Wednesday as they were working at an excavation site in Kaduna state, looking into ancient Nok culture.

Federal police chief Ibrahim K. Idris said on Thursday that the men had been assigned security personnel for their own protection but that they did not go with them to the dig site.—AFP