Mali/Terrorism

Al-Qaeda threatens to kill a French hostage

Article published on the 2010-01-11 Latest update 2010-01-11 11:53 TU

Pierre Camatte with students of the nursing school in Gao, a few weeks before his abduction.
(Photo: DR)

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb says its will execute Pierre Camatte, captured last 27 november, unless four of its prisoners in Mali are freed from jail within 20 days.

The north African branch of Al-Qaeda claimed last month it was holding Frenchman Pierre Camatte, who was abducted in Mali at the end of November, as well as three Spaniards kidnapped in neighbouring Mauritania four days later.

The SITE Intelligence Group and Intelcenter, two US groups which monitor Islamist websites, said Al-Qaeda  in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) issued the ultimatum in a statement dated January 10.

"The mujahedeen have decided to inform the French and Malian governments of their only demand to release the French hostage Pierre Camatte -- the release of our four prisoners apprehended by the state of 'Mali' many months ago," Intelcenter reported.

"Let France and Mali be forewarned, that we give 20 days to fulfill our just demand, or the two governments shall be fully responsible for the life of the French hostage," said the statement on the site. "We also call upon the French public opinion and the hostage's family to pressure (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy's government to prevent the repetition of (British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown's folly against his British citizen."

AQIM had claimed responsibility for the killing of British hostage Edwin Dyer who was executed in June, six months after being kidnapped in Niger, near the Mali border.

Pierre Camatte was kidnapped from a hotel in Menaka in the Sahel region of northern Mali, about1,500 kilometres from the capital Bamako, during the night of November 25. The 61-year old Frenchman from the northeastern Vosges region of France, heads the humanitarian Gérardmer-Tidarmene Association that has worked in this part of Mali to set up a health dispensary and train a midwife, dig a well and buy livestock following droughts.

Malian and Western security officials, who say Camatte regularly travelled to Mali, where he cultivates a plant known for its anti-malaria properties, is being held by a hardline faction within Al-Qaeda's north African branch.

AQIM claimed in a video released by pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera in December that it was holding the four Europeans. The three Spanish volunteers, two men and a women, were travelling in Mauritania in a convoy delivering humanitarian aid to west Africa when they were kidnapped on November 29.

The group has also said it is behind the kidnapping of two Italians in Mauritania on December 18. 

At the beginning of December, the President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, that he believed that small criminals were responsible for the abduction and that he would personnally take things in hand to get the Frenchman liberated.