Another AQIM Kidnapping in Mali?

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News sources yesterday reported that gunmen kidnapped a French expatriate in the Malian town of Menaka. No source could confirm the identity of the kidnappers, but suspicion has naturally fallen on AQIM.

In a statement, the French foreign ministry warned its citizens of the risk of kidnapping in the region and urged those travelling outside of the capital Bamako to be “extra vigilant”.

French embassy staff are working towards the release of Mr Kamatte.

The president of a town-twinning friendship organisation, he is reported to split his time between Mali and France.

In June British tourist Edwin Dyer was killed in Mali by militants. He had been kidnapped in Niger six months earlier close to the border with Mali.

Last month the US said it was preparing to give Mali’s army millions of dollars worth of military hardware to help them fight al-Qaeda’s North African branch.

Malian troops have joined in the search for the Frenchman.

For more on kidnappings and AQIM attacks in the Sahel:

Those are gloomy titles, but as several outlets have pointed out in the case of the kidnapped Frenchman, almost all AQIM kidnap victims have been released alive.

I’ll post more information as I get it.

6 thoughts on “Another AQIM Kidnapping in Mali?”

  2. Bizarre all this. Something is going on there. A plane full of drug that crashed in the town whose mayor is the famous Ould Seikh who helped free Fowler and before that the 32 hostage of El Para, a US military plane that crashes there too and this french guy who was not supposed to be there. Something is going on there and I hope is just a game and the hostage will not lose his life. I don’t know what to say. To me, looks like a game, secret d’ état …..

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  3. I found this article dated May 2009 where it says that France had two camps or bases at Menaka. The Frenchman was hijacked from Menaka, which appears as he was “ordered” and delivered like we order a book from amazon.com and delivered the next day.

    Look like the Fowler saga and it is probably the same people …

    Everything is questionable in that area. One possibility is that the cargo that “crashed” in Tirkent – the town whose mayor is AQIM go-between Ould Sheikh -had no drug at all. Probably used to let the rest of us believe that the area is full of terrorists, colombians drug dealers, la Comorra and very soon Chechen rebels.

    Unfortunately, the conspiracy theories of Keenan, Gèze and Mallah still hold. hope I am wrong, but all this does not fit. You have to read that famous Newsweek article between the lines. AQIM seems all manipulation. I need to be convinced by facts to believe that AQIM story line.

    http://www.temoust.org/terrorisme-et-prise-d-otages-dans,10702

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