| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| French president believes hostages in North Africa alive |
| 2013-06-24 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] La Belle France has "all reason" to believe that the kidnapped Frenchies being held by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are alive, President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... said on Sunday. The Islamist group said in a statement posted on its Twitter account on Saturday that eight European hostages, including five from La Belle France, were safe. The message repeated previous statements by AQIM that it would kill the hostages if there were any new French military intervention in North Africa, but said it remained open to negotiations to free them. "We are still looking for contacts, we have all reason to believe that the hostages are alive but we must seek to free them," Hollande said during a visit to Qatar. The AQIM statement coincided with rallies across La Belle France organized by the families of kidnapped Frenchies who were seized in Niger in September 2010 to mark more than 1,000 days of captivity. French newspapers have reported the hostages had been transferred to Algeria and were in the hands of AQIM's new chief, Yahia Abou el-Hamam. |
| Posted by:Fred |