Gunmen snatch 3 aid workers
Source: Agencies |
October 24, 2011, Monday
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GUNMEN kidnapped three aid workers - two Spaniards and an Italian - from a refugee camp in Algeria, injuring one of the hostages and a guard, officials said yesterday.
A military official in neighboring Mauritania said the kidnappers are linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman Amar Blani confirmed the kidnapping but would not comment on the motive or the identity of the kidnappers.
The kidnappers struck at a camp for refugees from the Western Sahara, a territory annexed by Morocco in 1975 after colonial ruler Spain pulled out.
The Algeria-based Polisario movement, which is seeking independence for Western Sahara and runs the refugee camp, said gunmen kidnapped the three just before midnight on Saturday.
It said the attackers came from the direction of neighboring Mali in four-wheel-drive vehicles.
It identified the hostages as Italian woman Rossella Urru, Spanish woman Ainhoa Fernandez Rincon and Spanish man Enrico Gonyans. Polisario said Gonyans and one of the workers' Saharawi guards were injured in the attack.
It said: "The Saharawi authorities have taken measures to track down the perpetrators."
The governments of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and other countries in the region are struggling against AQIM, which sprang from an Algerian Muslim extremist movement and has spread throughout the sparsely populated Sahara Desert.
Many Western Saharan refugees fled the mineral-rich territory when the Moroccans moved in, and have remained in Algerian camps close to the border with their former homeland.
A military official in neighboring Mauritania said the kidnappers are linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman Amar Blani confirmed the kidnapping but would not comment on the motive or the identity of the kidnappers.
The kidnappers struck at a camp for refugees from the Western Sahara, a territory annexed by Morocco in 1975 after colonial ruler Spain pulled out.
The Algeria-based Polisario movement, which is seeking independence for Western Sahara and runs the refugee camp, said gunmen kidnapped the three just before midnight on Saturday.
It said the attackers came from the direction of neighboring Mali in four-wheel-drive vehicles.
It identified the hostages as Italian woman Rossella Urru, Spanish woman Ainhoa Fernandez Rincon and Spanish man Enrico Gonyans. Polisario said Gonyans and one of the workers' Saharawi guards were injured in the attack.
It said: "The Saharawi authorities have taken measures to track down the perpetrators."
The governments of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and other countries in the region are struggling against AQIM, which sprang from an Algerian Muslim extremist movement and has spread throughout the sparsely populated Sahara Desert.
Many Western Saharan refugees fled the mineral-rich territory when the Moroccans moved in, and have remained in Algerian camps close to the border with their former homeland.
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