Algerian Diplomats Kidnapped In North Mali Freed: Report

The seven Algerian diplomats who were kidnapped by armed gunmen in the north-eastern Malian city of Gao, held by Tuareg rebels, have been released, TV channels reported on Sunday quoting Algerian security sources.

• Earlier a breakaway Islamist militia claimed responsibility for their abduction.

• Algerian consul Mr Boualem Sias, five of his staff and the representative of the Algerian community in Gao, the city where they were captured, were freed mid-morning Sunday, a local newspaper said.
• Earlier a radical breakaway from Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), the Movement for Unity and Jihad in Westa Africa (Mujoa), said it had kidnapped the 7 diplomats.
• In December 2011 Mujoa claimed responsibility for the capture of two Spaniards and an Italian in west Algeria and it says that it is still holding them.
• Other developments in Mali on Sunday include:
• •    A meeting of ministers from Algeria, Mauritania and Niger in Nouakchott warned that military intervention could worsen the situation in the region;
• •    The west African nations’ group Ecowas ordered the lifting of sanctions on Mali after the agreement of  coup leaders to hand over power to civilians;
• •    The speaker of parliament, Dioncounda Traoré, who is to take over the presidency according to the agreement, met politicians after returning to Bamako – a meeting with coup leader Amadou Sanogo was expected to be postponed;
• •   
• •    Leaders of terrorist group Aqim were reported to be in Timbuktu after its capture by the Islamist Ansar Dine group – one of them, Mokhtar Belmokhtar was reported to have arrived in Gao on Friday night.
• •   
• Tuareg separatists on Friday declared the north of Mali an independent state named Azawad but Islamist groups appear to have taken control of the major towns in the region.
• The declaration was rejected by the African Union as well as by Algeria and Morocco in addition to regional player France.