SA waits to hear about Mali kidnapping

2011-11-27 08:21

Bamako - South African Foreign Affairs spokesperson Clayson Monyela says the government is still trying to get more details from Mali after gunmen reportedly seized a South African and two others after killing a German in Timbuktu.

The two other men were reportedly from the Netherlands and Sweden.

Officials meanwhile ordered a plane to evacuate foreigners from the tourist destination.

Monyela said earlier that the abduction had apparently occurred on Friday and a South African team in the area followed it up.

He said the department would render consular assistance for the man's family as well as investigate who was responsible.

Monyela further said the department needed to verify the age and identity of the man, and no other details were yet available.

Tour guide Ali Maiga was with the tourists during the attack at a Timbuktu restaurant and gave the same list of nationalities. He said the South African also had a British passport in his possession.

A witness and an official said gunmen burst into the restaurant, grabbed four tourists dining there and executed one when he refused to climb into their truck.

Officials on Saturday evacuated foreigners from Timbuktu to the capital, said a man who owns a hotel in Bamako where the tourists previously stayed.

The kidnapping comes ahead of an official visit by Mali's president to the Netherlands later this week.

Monyela said on Saturday his government was trying to confirm whether one of those kidnapped was indeed a South African.

Canadian tourist Julie-Ann Leblond said she met a group consisting of a South African, a Swede and a Dutch couple in Mali. She said they invited her to join them as they headed to Timbuktu, but she took ill on Wednesday and had to stay behind.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, also condemned the attack in a statement and said "these incidents show the need to continue and intensify the efforts against insecurity in the Sahel," the desert region stretching from Mauritania to Chad.

"Through its Strategy for Security and Development in the Sahel, the EU is committed to help the Sahel countries in this endeavour," the statement said.

France's Foreign Ministry expanded the zone that it "strongly advises" French travellers to avoid travelling in Mali, moving the line southward from the Sahel region.

Neither kidnapping has yet been claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb whose members have kidnapped and ransomed more than 50 Europeans and Canadians since 2003.

- SAPA