Tired but safe, 14 Europeans who spent several months as hostages in the Sahara desert after being seized in Algeria left Mali’s capital Bamako late Tuesday for Cologne on a German army ambulance plane.
The ex-hostages, whose release had been announced on Monday by the Mali presidency, started off with a long road journey from Tessalit in the northeastern Kidal region to the city of Gao in north Mali before taking a Transall German army aircraft for Bamako.
On their arrival in the capital the nine Germans, four Swiss and one Dutchman were received in the presidential building by head of state Amadou Toumani Toure who officially handed them over to their countries’ authorities in the presence of the mediators who won their release.
The 14 tourists were expected to arrive in the west German city between 7 and 8 am (0500 and 0600 GMT) Wednesday.
Messages of support and congratulations flooded in on Tuesday in Germany after the announcement of the freeing of the ex-hostages while relatives of the nine Germans held off celebrations until their return.
The German ARD public television channel said late on Tuesday that Germany had paid a ransom of 4,6-million euros to the hostage-takers, quoting government sources as saying that the captors had originally demanded 45-million euros.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that German security officials would join in a hunt for the hostage-takers, branding them as ”terrorists” and insisting they must be punished.
Schroeder thanked the presidents of Mali and Algeria for their assistance in obtaining the release of the hostages, saying cooperation among the three governments had been ”exemplary”.
Mali’s government spokesperson Gaoussou Drabo said his country would not give asylum to the kidnappers, but neither would it fight them on its territory.
”There is no question of giving them asylum,” he said, noting that the Algerian authorities had allowed them to escape with their hostages into Malian territory.
But ”we will not fight to neutralise them. All we ask is that they do not do anything hostile to the local population,” he added.
No details were given about the number of abductors, who the Algerian authorities said belong to an Algerian Islamic extremist group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which is allegedly linked to al-Qaeda.
The 14 had arrived on Tuesday in Gao after the first stage of their long journey home, many in ragged clothes, barefoot and exhausted but relieved to be free after a day-long trip by road from the desert outpost of Tessalit.
”It’s incredible. We’re so happy to be back in civilisation,” said one Swiss former hostage.
”We ate dates,” but ”no vegetables and there were no vitamins,” said Silja Staeheli, a 19-year-old Swiss woman.
Some wore traditional Malian tunics, while others were in ragged clothes and several had bare feet.
”Everyone is well,” said one of the Malian mediators who obtained their release, Baba Ould Sheick.
The 14 had travelled with the mediators in a convoy of five four-wheel-drive vehicles from Tessalit in northern Mali, near the border with Algeria where they were abducted in February and March.
One of the former hostages said the kidnappers had told them they were mujahedeen, or Islamist fighters.
About two hours after their arrival, they boarded a German military Transall aircraft plane for Bamako, accompanied by the mediators and armed German soldiers.
One German ex-hostage, Erna Schuster (63) appeared more tired than the others and boarded the aircraft with difficulty.
The 14 were among 32 European trekkers captured early this year in southern Algeria, where they were roaming the desert without guides. They were taken to Mali as international efforts to secure their release gathered momentum.
A first group of 17 tourists was freed in a raid by Algerian commandos in May, while one of the remaining hostages, 46-year-old mother of two Michaela Spitzer, died in Algeria at the end of June, reportedly of heatstroke.
The release of the group of hostages raised questions in Germany about the alleged mediating role played by a Libyan charity headed by leader Muammar Gadaffi’s son.
The son, Saif al-Islam, told Berlin’s Tagesspiegel daily that his charity’s ”political contacts with the kidnappers” had helped the liberation efforts.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer refused to comment on reports of a Libyan role and experts cast doubt on the charity’s claim, but one politician said Tripoli had indeed played a part.
If so, it would not be the first time — the Gadaffi Foundation mediated in the freeing of German hostages held on the Philippines’ Jolo Island three years ago. – Sapa-AFP