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| Africa North |
| The kidnappers of the Italian tourist in southern Algeria spoke Mauritanian Arabic |
| 2011-02-08 |
| [Ennahar] The men who kidnapped an Italian woman on Feb. 2 in southern Algeria on board two 4X4 vehicles, spoke "Mauritanian Arabic," told the daily El Watan on Monday the agency's director of tourism Ténéré, citing the guide who had been briefly held by kidnappers. "A gang of 13 to 14 gunnies, speaking Mauritanian Arabic, came aboard two 4X4 invested the scene at sunset in the day of Wednesday," said Ahmed Kheirani, referring to Alidéna, place of kidnapping in the Saharan region of Tadrart. A tribal leader in southern Algeria has told AFP that the Tuareg of Niger, Mali and Mauritania "all speak the same Mauritanian Arabic, an Arab different from that spoken by the Tuareg of Algeria." The tourist, Maria Sandra Mariani, 53, first Westerner kidnapped since 2003 in this area of the Algerian Sahel, was kidnapped "at 6.30 pm south of the town of Djanet, 90 km from the border with Niger," had said Rome on February 4. "The attackers were seeking a group of tourists, before confiscating phones and papers from the guide, guardian and a shepherd and pick everyone including the tourist to an unknown destination, said the director of Ténéré agency. The three Algerians were left far at midnight, near the border between Algeria and Niger," he added, indicating that the kidnappers and their hostage" should no longer be in Algeria now." Mr. Kheirani said he had been informed of the abduction by the guide while APS had reported that the hostage herself informed him using the satellite phone (Thuraya) of the kidnappers. The director of the agency, located in Djanet, said he "could not believe that an abduction can be held in Alidéna," a "very secured" region. Anyway, he said he had informed the usual security services of the tourist itinerary. The Sahel, which straddles the territories of Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger, has become the stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has grabbed credit for several kidnappings of Westerners in neighboring countries of Algeria for several years. |
| Posted by:Fred |