* Factory restarts after two-day stoppage
* Freed manager says kidnap harms Camerooon's image
YAOUNDE, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Work restarted at Cameroonian sugar maker SOSUCAM's factory at Mbandjock on Friday after employees released the factory manager they had kidnapped in a protest, the firm said.
Angry workers took Gaetan Zuel hostage on Wednesday during a protest sparked by the sacking of several other employees from the agribusiness, Cameroon's third biggest employer. [ID:nLD719286]
Zuel was released and handed over to the police late on Thursday evening, and returned to work at Mbandjock, around 80 km (50 miles) from the capital Yaounde, on Friday.
"The situation is calm and work resumed normally today after two days of stoppage," Zuel told a news conference, adding that he was unhurt.
SOSUCAM, majority owned by French family-run food-processing firm SOMDIAA, is the biggest sugar maker in central Africa with 130,000 tonnes of products in the 2008/09 sugar season.
This week's kidnapping was a rare example in Africa of so-called "bossnapping," a form of protest against job cuts that has become particularly prevalent in France this year. Cameroon is a former French colony.
"This ... will severely dirty the image of Cameroon on the international scene," Zuel said.
"The country doesn't need this type of action at this moment when it is desparately seeking investors. No serious person will want to invest his money in a country where he can taken hostage at any time."
(Reporting by Tansa Musa; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)