Mali To Negotiate With African Al Qaeda Group

Authorities in Mali are trying to contact the North African wing of Al Qaeda to negotiate the release of four European hostages. Mali says the three Spaniards and one Frenchman are being held on its territory.

Defenceweb quoted a Malian source saying:

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb states it has kidnapped them and is holding them in Mali, and we have every reason to believe them.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is regarded as the North African wing of Al Qaeda, made up of previous Islamic extremist groups. The Malian official said:

We are seeking contact with them to negotiate the conditions of their release.

The Think Spain website reported earlier that Albert Vilalta, Roque Pascual and Alicia Gámez were kidnapped in November while travelling with the charity Barcelona Acció Solidaria. The charity was on its way to distribute humanitarian aid to the desert nation of Mauritania, as well as Senegal and Gambia on the West African coast. A few days earlier, a 61-year-old French aid worker, Pierra Camatte, was kidnapped from a hotel in Menaka, about 1,500kilometres north east of Bamako, the capital of Mali. The respected Foreign Affairs journal's website says the group at first only planned the:

Overthrow of Algeria's secular military government and the establishment of an Islamic caliphate, a theocracy based on Islamic law that for twelve centuries spanned the Muslim world.

The website warns that the group aims to spread terrorism across North Africa and Europe.