Malian authorities have freed four prisoners whose release was demanded by an al-Qaeda group threatening to kill a French hostage, prompting Mauritania to recall its ambassador in protest on Monday.
“The four al-Qaeda combatants were freed on Sunday night,” a Malian security source told reporters in Bamako, insisting that Mali had not bowed to al-Qaeda’s demands as the men had completed their nine-month prison terms.
The release of the four men — two from Algeria, one from Burkina Faso and one from Mauritania — also risks angering Algiers, where the two Algerians are wanted in connection with attacks.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had demanded the release of the four in exchange for French hostage Pierre Camatte, extending a previous deadline to last Saturday and threatening to kill him if their demands were not met.
As well as Camatte, who is thought to be hidden in the northern Malian desert, AQIM is also holding three Spanish hostages and an Italian couple, kidnapped in neighboring Mauritania within days of each other in November.
The release of the prisoners prompted anger in Nouakchott, where the foreign ministry said the move was “surprising” given that one of those released is wanted in Mauritania.
“Mauritania, while expressing its condemnation and rejection of this measure, has decided to recall its ambassador to Bamako for consultation,” Mauritania’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“This non-cordial measure taken by the Malian authorities harms age-old relations between the two countries. Above all it’s a flagrant contradiction of judicial cooperation accords and security coordination agreements,” between the countries, the ministry said.
Mali had long insisted it would not give in to AQIM’s demands, but last Thursday a court gave the four prisoners sentences that corresponded with the amount of time they had already spent in custody, paving the way for their release.
“We had a problem: how to do everything we could to save the life of the Frenchman,” an adviser to Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure told reporters.
“It was our duty to ask people in the north [of Mali] to get involved. We owe this to France, a friendly country,” the adviser said.
It could be several days before the Frenchman is freed, a Malian security source said.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS