Islamists Demand 45 Million Euros For 9 Hostages Including Algerians

An Al-Qaeda splinter group wants a total of 45 million euros in ransoms for two European women aid workers and seven Algerian diplomats taken hostage, the group’s spokesman said Wednesday.

• The so-called “Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa” (MUJAO) spokesman Adnan Abu Walid Sahraoui gave the figures in reply to a written question submitted by AFP.

• He said MUJAO was demanding 30 million euros ($40 million) for the two women, an Italian and a Spaniard, kidnapped in October along with a Spanish man while working in a camp for Western Sahara refugees in Tindouf in western Algeria.

• The Algerian diplomats were abducted on April 5 in Gao, northeast Mali, as Islamist and Tuareg separatist groups overran the north of the country in the wake of a military coup in the capital Bamako.

• Walid Sahraoui said his group demanded 15 million euros for the diplomats, who included the Algerian consul in Gao, and the release of prisoners held by Algeria, threatening an attack on Algerian soil otherwise.

• MUJAO warned on Sunday that the Algerians’ lives were in danger, saying negotiations with the Algerian government had broken down.

• “The Algerian delegation… completely refused our demands and this decision will put the lives of the hostages in danger,” Walid Sahraoui said in a short message sent to AFP at the time.

• MUJAO’s comments were a setback a week after a spokesman told AFP that, together with Islamist group Ansar Dine, “we have agreed to the release of seven people arrested on Algerian soil in Gao”.

• The same day, Algeria’s foreign minister had said the seven diplomats were in good health, that Algerian authorities were in contact with the kidnappers, and that “we expect this will soon bear fruit”.

• MUJAO is said to have broken off from “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM) in order to spread jihad to West Africa rather than confine themselves just to the Maghreb or Sahel regions.

• It is led by Malian and Mauritanian fighters, according to experts.

• The group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Gendarmerie base in Tamanrasset in southern Algeria on March 3 which left 23 people wounded and substantial material damage.

• A Malian source also said on March 3 MUJAO wanted 30 million euros to free the three European aid workers kidnapped in Algeria.

• But Walid Sahraoui said Wednesday that “negotiations only concern the Italian and Spanish women hostages”.

• He made no mention of the Spanish man, but said his group was also demanding that Madrid act to obtain the release of two Sahrawis arrested by Mauritania.

• The Spanish foreign ministry would not comment.