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.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS