By Moumine Ngarmbassa
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Freed U.S. missionary Steven Godboldexpressed relief to be on his way home on Saturday but saidChadian rebels had treated him as "guest of honour" during hisnine months as a hostage deep in the Sahara.
Godbold, 49, was captured in October as a suspected spy byrebels in the remote, mountainous north of Chad while helping alocal organisation transport equipment to drill water wells.
He was freed late on Thursday to local officials innorthern Chad and formally handed over to the U.S. ambassadorby the Chadian government in the capital N'Djamena on Saturday.
"My main feeling is relief at being released. I am veryhappy," Godbold said. "I am very happy with everything theChadian government has done to obtain my release, and the waythey have worked with rebel groups to achieve that."
Godbold, who is married and has four children according toThe Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM), based in Wheaton,Illinois, said he had found his imprisonment psychologicallydifficult, especially being separated from his family.
"But I was never physically mistreated. Nobody ever said athreatening word to me. I was treated almost as a guest ofhonour. We ate together, we drank tea together, we played cardstogether and we chatted together," he said.
Godbold, of Sarasota, Florida, has worked as a missionaryin Chad since 1991. He was captured last October by the rebelMovement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) on suspicionof being a spy for the Chadian government.
SAHARAN REBELS
Chad's MDJT was formed in the Tibesti mountains in theSahara in the late 1990s but has been eclipsed in recent yearsby eastern rebels battling Chadian President Idriss Deby frombases near the border with Sudan's Darfur region.
Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Faky Mahamat, who handedGodbold over to U.S. Ambassador Louis Nigro, said thegovernment had made no deal with the rebels for Godbold'srelease.
"We didn't launch a military operation so as not to put hislife in danger," he said.
At the time of his seizure, Godbold was working on ahumanitarian assistance project drilling water wells in theZoumri region, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
In January the MDJT said its inquiries showed Godbold wasnot working for the Chadian government as it had originallysuspected, but on that and several subsequent occasions hopesof an imminent release came to nothing.
Godbold's TEAM organisation said on Friday his release hadfollowed "extensive negotiations between his captors and TEAM".
"TEAM emphasizes that Godbold's release was unconditionaland that no ransom was paid and no concessions of any type weremade to secure his release," the evangelical group said.
TEAM said Godbold would be flown home to his family in theUnited States via Europe, though it was not clear when he wouldleave N'Djamena.
A plethora of armed groups operate in the Sahara, andseveral have taken Westerners hostage in recent years.
Al Qaeda's North African arm is thought to be holding twoAustrian tourists on the Mali-Algeria border hundreds ofkilometres (miles) west of Chad, after seizing them in Tunisiain February.
(Writing by Alistair Thomson; editing by Mary Gabriel)