Gift of the Givers said it had facilitated the “unconditional” release of Gerco Van Deventer.
The charity group described Van Deventer as the longest-held South African hostage.
He was seized by an unnamed group in Libya in 2017, sold to militant Islamists in Mali a year later, and released “into” Algeria.
Large parts of Libya have been lawless since Nato-backed forces overthrew and killed long-serving ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, while Mali is battling an Islamist insurgency and a rebellion by separatist forces in the north.
