Three citizens of Burkina Faso and a Chinese national have been found unharmed after being reported missing, the government said Sunday.

The four were reported missing Friday after their vehicle was discovered abandoned with its doors open in the southwestern Cascades region.

But the ministry of digital economy and postal development stated they had been found unharmed following an apparent kidnapping attempt.

"The four members of a team of service providers on the Backbone Project government telecommunications project reported missing have been found safe and sound," a ministry statement read, without giving further details.

"The four were found Saturday evening several kilometres (miles) from Sideradougou," a southwestern departmental capital, a security source told AFP.

"They have been brought back to Ouagadougou. They are in a state of shock," he added.

Another security source told AFP that security forces had combed the area where they went missing and those efforts were "doubtless... what pushed the kidnappers to release them."

The actual conditions for their release remain unclear.

"We don't have the details on their release... The victims themselves don't know," Security Minister Ousseni Compaore told AFP.

"No ransom was paid because that would have involved meeting the kidnappers who we are still looking for," he added.

The four were working on a project to lay down fibre-optic cable to connect Burkina Faso with the rest of the world, according to the digital economy ministry. The contract is being handled by the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

Kidnapping for ransom is not uncommon in the West African country, which is in the grip of increasing jihadist violence that the armed forces have been unable to stem.

Zimbabwe VP returns after months of medical care in China
Harare (AFP) Nov 23, 2019 - Zimbabwe's Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who led the ousting of Robert Mugabe, returned home Saturday, four months after he was airlifted to China for medical care, state media reported.

Chiwenga, 63, who is seen as a major power-broker in Zimbabwean politics, had been in and out of hospital since the start of this year.

In July, the government said he was being flown to China for "further tests" after he had been hospitalised in neighbouring South Africa.

His ailment has not been disclosed.

Zimbabwe's public health services have practically collapsed and more than 400 doctors have been sacked in recent weeks after they stopped going to work saying their salaries - decimated by hyperinflation - were not even enough for the commute to hospitals.

Those Zimbabweans who can afford it seek treatment in South Africa or elsewhere.

Ex-president Robert Mugabe died in September in Singapore where he had been receving treatment for five months.

Chiwenga was welcomed back by the Chinese deputy ambassador to Harare Zhao Baogang, according to state broadcaster ZBC.

A video clip of his airport arrival shared on social media, showed no senior government official among the delegation receiving him when he stepped off a Chinese aircraft.

The then army chief led the military takeover that ended Mugabe's 37-year rule in 2017.

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