Al-Qaeda releases hostage video: Mauritania news agency
AFP Updated September 17, 2013, 3:52 am
DAKAR (AFP) - Al-Qaeda's north African branch has released a video purporting to show seven Westerners it kidnapped in west Africa, the Mauritanian news agency ANI reported on Monday.
The hostages are four Frenchmen kidnapped from a uranium compound in northern Niger exactly three years ago along with a Dutchman, a Swede and a South African who were abducted from Timbuktu in northern Mali in November 2011, ANI said.
Frenchman Daniel Larribe introduces himself as the head of the French group, saying that he was kidnapped by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the city of Arlit, in northern Niger, on September 16, 2010.
ANI reported on its website that he was speaking on June 27 and said he was in good health, although he had been threatened with death.
The video includes statements from his compatriots Pierre Legrand, Thierry Dol and Marc Furrer as well as South African Stephen Malcolm, Dutchman Sjaak Rijke and Swede Johan Gustafsson.
AQIM is currently thought to be holding hostage eight Europeans, including five French nationals.
Philippe Verdon, who was kidnapped in Mali in 2011 and found dead earlier this year, was executed with a shot to the head, according to French prosecutors.
Dol, Larribe, Legrand and Furrer -- mostly working for French public nuclear giant Areva and its subcontractor Satom -- were kidnapped on September 16, 2010.
Francoise Larribe, wife of Daniel, was also captured but was released in 2011.
A fifth French hostage, Serge Lazarevic, was kidnapped along with Verdon in the night of November 24, 2011 at their hotel in Hombori.
Their families insisted they were no mercenaries or secret service agents.
French President Francois Hollande said in July France was "doing everything" to bring the hostages back but "will not talk so as not to complicate a situation which is bad enough".
AQIM said in late June that the eight Europeans are alive and that it would soon release a new video of the five Frenchmen.
In the new video the French hostages reportedly blame their government for any harm they may come to and implore Hollande's administration as well as family members to work for their release.
Larribe asks the French people and his family and friends to work together and pressure the French government for his release, adding that his life was in danger "because of the French bombardment", ANI reported.
Hollande sent French troops into its former colony Mali in January to repel a sweeping Islamist occupation by groups linked to Al-Qaeda including AQIM which was threatening an assault on the capital Bamako.
Dol said in the video he was 32 and "suffering heart problems that require urgent medical treatment", ANI said.
"I have been in the Sahara for 19 months with the mujahideen. I am treated well and I am in good health. But it is difficult to remain in these conditions for a longer period," Malcolm was quoted as saying.
The French president's office said it was verifying the authenticity of the video.
