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| Africa North | |||
| Kidnapping proves lucrative for N African Qaeda | |||
| 2009-12-02 | |||
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Kidnapping has become a lucrative business for al-Qaeda's north African branch, experts said Tuesday after a French national and three Spaniards were abducted in the Sahel within days of each other. The kidnapping of Frenchman Pierre Camatte in northern Mali last week and the abduction of the Spanish aid workers on Sunday in Mauritania have both been attributed to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), even though it has not yet claimed responsibility.
"Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb needs money (...) Other groups can snatch Westerners for them and hand them over. You get the impression it's becoming a business in the (Sahel) region," Antil explained. AQIM "has grave financial problems and these kidnappings show a push to resolve this," French al-Qaeda specialist Jean-Pierre Filiu of the Paris Institute for Political Qtudies said. "In times of difficulty (al-Qaeda's north African branch) becomes dangerous," added the author of several books on Islamist extremism. According to the coordinator of counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department, Daniel Benjamin, AQIM "is financially strapped, particularly in Algeria, and unable to reach its recruiting goals." Benjamin said that it was reliant on kidnapping Westerners.
On Sunday three Spanish aid workers disappeared in Mauritania and appeared to have been kidnapped by a group linked to al-Qaeda. "Although we still can't be completely sure of anything, everything indicates that it was a kidnapping, and, if so, as I fear it was, everything indicates that it was a kidnapping by AQIM, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said. In Feb. 2008, two Austrian tourists were kidnapped by AQIM in Tunisia, who took them to northern Mali and released them after eight months. In December of the same year two Canadian diplomats were seized in Niger by a group that claims links with al-Qaeda. They were soon joined by four European tourists -- two Swiss, a German and a Briton -- abducted in the border region between Mali and Niger in January. The Canadian diplomats, the Swiss hostages and the German were released over the following months, but in June AQIM put a message on a web site saying it has killed the Briton, Edwin Dyer. Top Ransoms and deals Ransoms are believed to have been paid and deals struck to release jailed militants, though most of the governments involved vehemently deny entering into any deals. Observers say the killing of the British hostage was because London had refused to give in to the kidnappers' demands to release an Islamic militant jailed in Britain. In the Austrians' case, local media in Austria quoted sources saying a ransom of between two and ￜ3 million was paid but stressed that Vienna had not paid any money directly to the kidnappers. Likewise, Canadian media reported that the Malian authorities paid several million dollars to ensure the release of the Canadians. Canada denies paying a ransom, but critics point to the fact that Canadian aid to Mali has more than quadrupled since. Last September, Algerian President Abelaziz Bouteflika pleaded before the United Nations General Assembly for a ban on paying ransoms to kidnappers, which he said had reached "worrying proportions." According to the Algerian leader "ransoms are now the principal source of finance for terrorism." | |||
| Posted by:Fred |