A French kidnapped by AQMI in northern Mali

BAMAKO - The French kidnapped in northern Mali is detained by members of the "hardliners" of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said Friday a Malian security source, six months after the execution of the British hostage by the same group in this region.

•    Pierre Camatte, 61, was kidnapped on the night of Wednesday to Thursday in a hotel in Menaka, a city located more than 1,500 km northeast of Bamako.
  
     "All the elements we have confirmed that Mr. Camatte is in the hands of armed Islamists in the Sahara," said the security source, on condition of anonymity, adding: "he is held by the hardliners of AQIM.”
  
     "We are in constant contact with the French authorities to whom we have already given this information," the source added.
  
     Several Westerners -but never the French- had been kidnapped in recent months in the Sahel before being dispatched to the north of Mali.
  
     They were usually released after ransom payments, even if the governments involved did not report financial transactions.
  
     But in June, the North African branch of Al-Qaeda announced for the first time, killing a Western hostage, the British tourist Edwin Dyer.
  
     According to a source close to the negotiations in Mali, the group responsible for this performance was led by the Algerian Abdelhamid Abou Zeid.
  
     This group would hold today, the French hostage.
  
     Abu Zeid, along with Mokhtar Ben Mokhtar, is one of the "emirs" of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) who run operations in the south of the Maghreb, whose desert is shared with Mali. The two men recruited fighters in their various countries of the sub-region.
  
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O