An al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group based in northern Mali said on Wednesday it had freed three European hostages who were kidnapped in western Algeria in October.
“Consider them freed, because our conditions were respected,” said Mohamed Ould Hicham, a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).
He said a ransom had been paid for the three aid workers — a Spanish man and woman and an Italian woman — referring to it as a “debt,” but he would not be drawn on the amount.
“The hostages were freed not far from Gao [northeastern Mali], we handed them to a delegation from Burkina Faso. They are currently with the Burkinabes,” Hicham said.
This was confirmed by a military source in Burkina Faso, which is often involved in mediation for hostage releases. The Burkinabe delegation was to return early yesterday with the hostages to Ouagadougou, the source said.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi confirmed the release of the Italian woman Rossella Urru, describing it as “beautiful news.” Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti expressed his “great joy.”
In Madrid, a spokesman for the foreign minister said: “The liberation process is almost finished, it was delayed by a sandstorm ... A plane was sent to bring home the two Spaniards.”
They are Enric Gonyalons and Ainhoa Fernandez Rincon.
The hostages were abducted from a Sahrawi refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria. Sahrawis are people from the disputed Western Saharan territory that abutts Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria.
The previously unknown group MUJAO claimed responsibility, presenting themselves as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
In May, MUJAO demanded the release of two Sahrawis arrested by Mauritania for their role in the kidnapping, as well as 30 million euros (US$36.8 million) in ransom.
They threatened to kill the Spanish man if their demands were not met.
In Nouakchott, online news agency Alakhbar reported that among Islamist prisoners exchanged for the hostages was a Sahrawi called Memine Ould Oufkir, one of those arrested in the wake of the kidnapping.
MUJAO last week said they had freed three of seven Algerian diplomats kidnapped during the takeover of Gao in late March.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
RSS