Bamako: An al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group based in northern Mali said Wednesday that it had freed two Spanish and one Italian hostage kidnapped in western Algeria in October 2011.
Mohammed Ould Hicham, a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) told AFP “Consider them freed, because our conditions were respected.”
He said a ransom had been paid, referring to it as “debt” but would not be drawn on the amount.
Hicham also said the hostages — an Italian woman, a Spanish woman and a Spanish man — had been freed in a “Muslim country” but would not say which one.
In Rome, Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi confirmed Urru’s release, calling it “great news” and lauding her “courage and heroism” for volunteering to work in “extremely difficult conditions.” There was no immediate word on plans for repatriation.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry also confirmed the two Spaniards were being freed. It said the handover was “on the verge” of being completed but delayed at the last minute by a sandstorm.
A plane has been sent to Africa to pick them up, said a ministry official. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with ministry rules.
All three aid workers, the hostages were taken from a Sahrawi refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria. The previously unknown group MUJAO claimed responsibility, presenting themselves as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)
In May, MUJAO demanded the release of two Sahrawis arrested by Mauritania for their role in the kidnapping, as well as 30 million euros ($40 million) in ransom.
They also threatened to kill the Spanish man if their demands were not met.
In Nouakchott, online news agency Alakhbar reported that among the Islamist prisoners exchanged for the hostages was a Sahrawi called Memine Ould Oufkir, one of those arrested in the wake of the kidnapping.
Northern Mali has become a magnet for Islamist radicals since Ansar Dine and AQIM fighters drove out separatist Tuareg rebels who had seized northern Mali in late March. The two Islamist groups want to impose Shariah law in the region.
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