Story highlights "I did not know whether I would survive," German citizen Robert Nitsch Eberhard says

"You see nobody around you," he says

Boko Haram said last year that it was holding a German citizen

Yaounde, Cameroon (CNN) Cameroonian troops and their allies have freed a German man who was held for six months by Islamist terror group Boko Haram, Cameroonian President Paul Biya said.

Boko Haram kidnapped German citizen Robert Nitsch Eberhard in Nigeria in July, Biya said in a statement read Wednesday on state-run broadcaster CRTV. He did not detail how, when or where the rescue operation took place.

"A special operation of Cameroonian armed forces and security services of friendly countries" freed the man, he said.

Eberhard told journalists he was glad to be alive.

"I am happy to see all these people around me, who have rescued me and made sure that I survived, because until the last minute, I did not know whether I would survive or I would not survive. It was for me a big problem. Because it was darkness, total darkness, and you see nobody around you. Then this is a big problem to say OK, I will survive or not survive," Eberhard said.