Niger kidnapping: Mujahedeen fighters released in exchange for diplomats

From Canwest News Service by Steven Edwards 28 April, 2009 (via Calgary Herald):

Mujahedeen fighters released in exchange for diplomats: Sources



Photo: Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler (right), UN special envoy to Niger, and his assistant Louis Guay are pictured after they were released along with two European tourists by Al-Qaeda-linked captors after months as hostages on Thursday.
Photograph by: Habib Kouyate, AFP/Getty Images

UNITED NATIONS — An Algerian terror suspect, who has fought in Afghanistan, was among four jailed "mujahedeen" fighters released to al-Qaida's North Africa branch in exchange for two Canadian diplomats and two European women, Canwest News has been told.

Two of the other three terror suspects were Mauritanian, while the remaining one was either Jordanian or Syrian, sources in North Africa with some knowledge of the largely secret deal say.

The diplomats, former Canadian ambassador to the UN Robert Fowler, and Foreign Affairs Department official Louis Guay, arrived back in Canada Tuesday after spending several days undergoing medical check-ups and debriefing in Germany since al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) released them in Mali last week.

A faction of the group held the pair hostage in the land-locked Sahel state following their kidnapping Dec. 14 in neighbouring Niger, where they had been on a UN mission.

Fowler declined comment on his ordeal when reached at his Ottawa home Tuesday.

The released Algerian al-Qaida member, Oussama Alboumerdassi, fought with the then U.S.-backed mujahedeen resistance to the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, staying on until 1992, according to a North African al-Qaida observer with close links to people involved in the effort to free the Canadians.

The information is backed by a report published Tuesday in Ennahar, a daily newspaper based in the Algerian capital of Algiers. The paper promotes itself as being independent of government.

Regional security sources provided the nationalities of the other three, according to the al-Qaida expert, while Ennahar says all four had been jailed in Mali since February 2008.

At the heart of the negotiations seeking the release of the hostages were Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a relative of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, identified as Mauritanian businessman Abdallah Chaffei, the newspaper reported.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper specifically thanked both Mali and Burkina Faso during a press conference last Wednesday in which he announced the Canadians' release

Indeed, al-Qaida initially said it would release the pair and the European women — two of four tourists snatched in Mali by the terrorist group in January — in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou, a Western source close to the talks told Canwest News Service.

Insisting the Conservative government had stuck to its policy of neither paying a ransom nor freeing prisoners for hostages, Harper left open the possibility other countries had fronted a deal.

Saif al-Islam, who heads the Gaddafi Foundation charity, mediated last year in the case of two Austrians held by AQIM in Mali.

But insiders say Guay himself was also personally known to Libyan officials, having visited the country several times as he sought to get Canada invited to peace talks focused on the border between Chad and the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan.

A ransom of $2 million was paid for the Austrians' freedom, a source close to those talks told Canwest.

In talks seeking freedom for the Canadians and Europeans, Ennahar says Chaffei joined Saif al-Islam after Burkina Faso had "taken the initiative" to manage delivery of a cash ransom that had emerged as a demand.

Their presence would have enabled Canadian and UN investigators, who had been dispatched to the region, to maintain arm's length from the talks, analysts believe.

A former U.S. ambassador to the region told Canwest News Service that the Burkina Faso president has, in recent years, gained a reputation for being "very helpful" to the West. But he has in the past been linked to diamond smuggling that benefited regional terrorists — hence his "likely connections" to AQIM, according to one regional source.

But the real sticking block was the al-Qaida demand for a prisoner exchange, which Canwest News revealed several weeks after the Canadians had been kidnapped, basing the report on Western sources.

Helping solve that fell to Mali President Amadou Toure, according to Ennahar.

"AQIM declared in an unofficial manner that four of its members . . . have been delivered to the north of Mali as a result of a major transaction led by the Malian president," it said.

An unnamed European country paid a ransom of five million Euros, the Algerian daily El Khabar reported last week, and Ennahar, citing its own sources, asserted the same Tuesday.

The women freed alongside Fowler and Guay are a Swiss and a German.

The Swiss woman's husband and a British man remain hostage. al-Qaida said in a statement Sunday it would give Britain 20 days to free a prominent al-Qaida member currently held in a British jail, or it will kill the Briton.

Niger gov't reps and Tuareg rebel leaders declared peace in presence of Col Gaddafi

The Tuaregs, a historically nomadic people living in the Sahara and Sahel regions of North Africa, have had militant groups in Mali and Niger engaged in sporadic armed struggles for several decades.

In neighbouring Mali, hundreds of Tuareg rebels laid down their arms in February, breathing new life into a stalled peace process

The BBC's Idy Baraou in Niger says the country's main rebel group wants a greater share of revenues from the uranium mines in the north of the former French colony.

The movement also wants the expanding mines to be curtailed so they do not encroach on agricultural areas, already under threat from increased desertification.

Source: BBC News April 97, 2009
Niger and rebels 'agree to peace'

The government of Niger and Tuareg rebels of the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ) have agreed to end hostilities, according to reports.

Libyan state news agency Jana said two days of talks in Tripoli ended with both sides committing themselves to "total and comprehensive peace".

There has been no confirmation from the Niger government but a rebel website said everyone supported reconciliation.

The rebels are seeking a greater share of the region's uranium resources.

In the past Niger said it would never negotiate with the rebels, whom it labelled as bandits, but last month the Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gaddafi visited Niger to help broker a deal.

Rebels also released some government troops.

Government representatives and rebel leaders declared peace in the presence of Col Gaddafi, the current chairman of the African Union, Jana reported.

"Two days of talks ... were crowned by an announcement in front of the brother leader of the revolution and African Union chairman that they commit themselves to keep up total and comprehensive peace in Niger," the report said.

One of the three Tuareg rebel groups, the Niger Patriotic Front (FPN), said in a statement on its website that "all the delegations spoke in favour of peace and national reconciliation".

"All those taking part in this mission now have the historic responsibility to overcome their differences and realise these commitments, which must now be transformed into a formal peace agreement," the statement said.

Both sides had opened the discussions by telling Col Gaddafi they were committed to peace in the West African state, Jana reported.

"Everyone present spoke of their serious commitment and will to reach a peace deal," Niger's Interior Minister Albedi Abouba was quoted as saying.

Aghali Alambo, leader of the MNJ, spoke of the "commitment of his group and other groups for a definitive peace in Niger," Jana reported.

Uranium revenues

The BBC's Idy Baraou in Niger says the country's main rebel group wants a greater share of revenues from the uranium mines in the north of the former French colony.

The movement also wants the expanding mines to be curtailed so they do not encroach on agricultural areas, already under threat from increased desertification.

The Tuaregs, a historically nomadic people living in the Sahara and Sahel regions of North Africa, have had militant groups in Mali and Niger engaged in sporadic armed struggles for several decades.

In neighbouring Mali, hundreds of Tuareg rebels laid down their arms in February, breathing new life into a stalled peace process.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb seeks to unify armed radical groups with emerging groups in Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea

From Gulf Daily News, Monday, April 06, 2009
Bouteflika warned by Al Qaeda

ALGIERS: Al Qaeda has warned Algerians against re-electing "ferocious enemy" President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Thursday's presidential vote.

The Algerian regime supports the West by seeking to destroy "true Islam," Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said in a statement issued on Jihadist forums, the Site Intelligence Group reported.

It said Bouteflika is a "ferocious enemy" of Muslims.

The Al Qaeda group called on Muslims to overthrow rulers whose legislation fails to follow religious law.

Muslims, it added according to Site, must seek training and Jihad, abstain from the re-election of Bouteflika and his like, and support =the Mujahideen.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb seeks to unify armed radical groups in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco with emerging groups in countries such as Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea.