A suspected Islamic group which abducted 14 European tourists in the Sahara desert is demanding a ransom of $5,-million for each hostage, German television station N-TV reported on Friday.
”They are in a satisfactory condition but they are tired,” the station’s reporter said from Mali, adding that ”letters from the hostages had been handed over by an intermediary”.
N-TV said the information was given to it by ”an unidentified diplomat in Mali”, where negotiations between the authorities and the hostage takers were reported to be in a ”very active phase”.
The 14 — nine Germans, four Swiss and one Dutchman — are believed to have been abducted by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a radical Islamic group with alleged links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.
They went missing in February and March while travelling in Algeria’s vast Sahara desert without local guides. – Sapa-AFP