Doctors Without Borders hostage freed in DR Congo

Kinshasa (AFP) - An employee of Doctors Without Borders held hostage for more than a year in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been freed, the medical aid group said on Sunday.

"Chantal is free", a spokeswoman for the aid group, also known by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said, referring to Congolese staff member Chantal Kaghoma.

MSF said it did not have details about Kaghoma's release.

Radio Okapi, the UN station in DRC, said she and four other people were freed following clashes in DRC's restive east between their captors, the Ugandan rebel group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), and the Congolese regular army.

The ADF, which is active in the mineral-rich North Kivu province, has been beaten back by recent Congolese army offensives but is still thought to hold hundreds of hostages.

Among them are three other MSF employees, who were captured along with Kaghoma in July 2013.

The ADF was founded in the mid-1990s to fight the regime of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is accused of crimes including murder, looting and enlisting child soldiers.

The United States placed the movement on its list of terrorist organisations in 2001.