Insurgents holding a French security consultant hostage in Somalia issued demands in return for his release yesterday, including an immediate end to French support for Somalia’s government.
The ultimatum came three days after US special forces killed one of the continent’s most wanted al-Qaeda suspects in a helicopter raid on a convoy carrying foreign members of the al-Shabaab rebel group in southern Somalia.
The French hostage is one of two security consultants kidnapped by gunmen in the capital Mogadishu in July. His colleague managed to escape on Aug. 26.
“By the grace of Allah and under his guidance, the mujahidin succeeded in a major operation to capture an officer and agent of the French security services,” al-Shabaab said in a statement directed at the authorities in Paris.
In return for his release, al-Shabaab demanded the “immediate cessation of any political or military support to the apostate government of Somalia and the withdrawal of all its security advisers in Somalia.”
It demanded the withdrawal of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force supporting the fragile administration of Somalian President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, and the departure of French warships that are trying to stamp out piracy in Somali waters.
The rebels also called for the withdrawal of Ugandan and Burundian soldiers who comprise the AU’s 5,000-strong AMISOM peace mission, “especially the Burundians,” and for the release of mujahidin prisoners in countries to be named later.
Fighting in Somalia has killed more than 18,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and left another 1.5 million homeless.
Western security agencies say the drought-ridden country has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who use it to plot attacks across the region and beyond.
This week, US commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the 28-year-old Kenyan who was said to have built the truck bomb that claimed 15 lives at an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Kenya in 2002.
He was also wanted over a simultaneous but failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner taking off from nearby Mombasa.
Nabhan was allied with al-Shabaab, which the US accuses of being al-Qaeda’s proxy in Somalia.
Fighters from an allied insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, held the other French security consultant prisoner in Mogadishu until he was able to escape last month.
Police said the former hostage killed three of his captors, but Marc Aubriere denied killing anyone and said he slipped away while his guards slept, then walked across the city for hours until reaching the presidential palace.
Many Somalis speculated that al-Shabaab would take revenge for Nabhan’s death by executing the second French hostage.
In the statement, al-Shabaab vowed to continue its fight.
“The heroes of the nation, the mujahidin of Somalia, despite the number of plots against them ... never cease to set an example by their sacrifices and strive to lift their nation out of this deep quagmire and into safety,” the statement said.
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