AQIM splinter group demands 30m Euros to free European hostages

AQIM splinter group “Unity and Jihad Movement in West Africa” (MUJAO) demands 30 million euros to free the three Eurpean hostages, two Spanish and an Italian, who were abducted in October 2011 in Tindouf camps (south of Algeria), a source close to the mediators told AFP here on Saturday.

 “Unity and Jihad Movement in West Africa” (MUJAO) demands 30 million euros to free the three Eurpean hostages, two Spanish and an Italian”, the source from Mali , already implicated in mediations for further hostages in the past, told AFP.

“Their respective countries know about this.”the source added.

The MUJAO, which claimed a car bomb suice attack against the headqarters of the National Gendarmerie on Saturday in Tamanrasset, south of Algeria,  which left 23 injured according to security services, claimed in December the kidnapping of three European aid workers, two Spanish and an Italian in the region of Tindouf (south-west of Algeria).

Previously the Polisario Front said Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) , very active in the countries of the band Sahel-Saharan Africa since 2007, is behind such terrorist acts.

MUJAO is an AQIM’s splinter group led by Malians and Mauritanians, according to security experts.

December 12, 2011, a video showing two gunmen flanking women, one Italian and one Spanish and a Spanish man, kidnapped on 23 in October in Tindouf area, this was made public by the MUJAO, a new Islamist group that advocates jihad (holy war) in Africa West.

The group also released another video showing six dark-skinned, turbaned men speaking of their ideological references, including Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar but putting more emphasis on historical figures of west African Islam.