| Africa North |
| Belmokhtar frees the two Spanish hostages and recovers the terrorist Omar Sahraoui |
| 2010-08-23 |
| [Ennahar] The terrorist organization AQIM has released the two Spanish hostages, Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta. The Spanish authorities announced that a plane was ready to fly from Madrid to the area but « we do not know the exact location of their delivery" to the Spanish authorities, according to the Spanish daily El Pais. "We do not known with certainty whether the release of the hostages will be held in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) or in Timbuktu (Mali). The mediator Mustafa Shaafa'i, an adviser to President of Burkina Faso is part of the group responsible for the release", the newspaper said. A possible release of the two hostages would occur a few days after extradition from Nouakchott, Mauritania to Mali of Omar Sid Ahmed Ould Hamma, alias "Omar Sahraoui, convicted of abducting the Spanish humanitarian in Mauritania. Another hostage, a Spanish woman kidnapped at the same time with Pascual and Vilalta, Alicia Gamez, was released in March. AQMI had claimed on July 25 the execution of a French hostage Michel Germaneau, 78, after the failure of a Franco-Mauritanian military raid in Mali to try to find him and in which seven terrorists were killed. This attack had caused concern in Madrid, concerned about the fate of the Spanish hostages in the hands of an AQIM group led by Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, alias Belawar. The Catalan NGO Accio Solidaria, which included the hostages, however, had said Aug. 16 that their families had received "proof of life", they were fine and that negotiations were ongoing for their release. The hostage Alicia Gamez was released after she had announced her conversion to Islam, while the other two hostages were released against the liberation of Omar Saharaoui in addition to a ransom estimated at 10 million Euros. |
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| Africa North |
| Mali resumed negotiations with the Salafi organization |
| 2010-08-21 |
| [Ennahar] Malian authorities have resumed negotiations with the terrorist organization Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Saharan Sahel region, a few months of break after the successful negotiations that led to the liberation of the French spy Pierre Camatte against the release of four dangerous Boskonians who have, less than a month later, executed his compatriot Michael Germaneau. The extradition from Nouakchott to his country of Omar Sahraoui, a Malian convicted of the kidnapping of three Spaniards in 2009, two of which are still being held by Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), is seen as a gesture that could help free the hostages. "For AQIM, the fact that Omar is transferred to Mali is a victory. Mauritania has made a gesture. It is very important," says in Mali a source close to case of Spanish hostages, held in northern Mali. Mauritania has always shown great firmness against AQIM and its relations were considerably strained with Mali after that country freed four Boskonians in exchange for the release of the French hostage Pierre Camatte in February,. If this is not a fighter, Omar Sid Ahmed Ould Hamma, nicknamed "Omar the Sahraoui", however, is linked to AQIM: it is for her that he had kidnapped three Spaniards (Alicia Gamez, 39, Albert Vilalta, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50) in Mauritania on 29 November 2009. Alicia Games, only woman, was released in March, but her two companions remain in the hands of an AQIM group led by the Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, alias Belawar, who had paid "Sahraoui" to kidnap them. Less than a week after the confirmation on appeal on August 11 for his conviction in Nouakchott to 12 years in prison and hard labor for the kidnappings as "mercenary" of AQIM, he was put on a plane to Bamako. He was not handcuffed during the trip and was recovered by Mali security forces, who took him to an unknown destination. "Where will he serve his sentence? Will he put in jail? Will he work of public utility? Will he put under house arrest? To all these questions, there had been no answer yet," admits a source in the Malian Ministry of Justice. Married to a woman from Western Sahara, Omar Sahraoui, 52, was foremost a businessman, who knows all countries of the Sahel region he used to walk up and down and where he has forged links with various tribes that comprise it. "His extradition meets several requirements, including the most important for AQIM is primarily the role of an experienced guide of Omar in this great desert, the chain of relationships built in these different countries," said Ould Isselmou Salihi, editor of Mauritanian Tahalil Hebdo specialist of Islamist organizations. This expertise of the Sahel presents "incalculable benefits which everyone could enjoy," said Ould Salihi. His extradition "may be significant in the process of liberation of the Spanish," he said. Abu Al Maali, Mauritanian expert of Islamists issues of the Nouakchott Info daily, stresses the "importance" that the extradition of "The Sahrawi Omar" represents for Belmokhtar. He can thus "show to mercenaries and smugglers working with him to ensure their protection" and "strengthen his audience among the local tribes with whom he remains closely linked," he says. If Belmokhtar is considered by experts as one of AQIM money man than as a religious, sources in Mali have recently stated that he was "under pressure" of a radical branch of AQIM headed by another Algerian Abdelhamid Abou Zeid. The latter, responsible for the deaths of two Western hostages, Briton Edwin Dyer and French Michel Germaneau, Belmokhtar would require the execution of the Spaniards in retaliation for a franco-Mauritanian military raid conducted on July 22 to try to find Germaneau which had killed seven of his men. |
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