France: 3 hostages released in Africa
2011-02-26 13:29
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Nicolas Sarkozy
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Paris - Three hostages kidnapped in a Niger mining town last year were released in good health, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said on Friday.
Al-Qaeda's North African offshoot claimed responsibility for seizing seven hostages in the middle of the night in September from their guarded villas in the town of Arlit, where they were working for French nuclear company Areva.
Three of the hostages were released on Thursday night, Sarkozy's office said. They are Frenchwoman Francoise Larribe, as well as Jean-Claude Rakotorilalao of Madagascar and Alex Awando of Togo.
Sarkozy expressed his support for the families of the four French hostages still held.
After the kidnapping, militants took the group into the desert, in a region where al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb holds sway over a swath of territory encompassing parts of Algeria, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.
A video released on a jihadist forum two weeks after the kidnapping showed the hostages sitting cross-legged in the sand with a gently sloping dune behind them.
The attack on the Areva compound in Niger was their most daring to date. The heavily armed gunmen were able to get past the town's security cordon which includes 350 of Niger's troops as well as 150 security guards hired by Areva.
- AP