ALGERIA: All 14 European tourists held by Algerian militants in the Sahara desert have been released after more than five months in captivity, a spokesman for Mali's presidency said yesterday.
Kept on the move by hostage-takers hiding out in the vastness of the Sahara's rocks and dunes, the group of nine Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch tourist faced temperatures that regularly topped 45 degrees Celsius.
"We confirm officially that they have been released, all the hostages," presidency spokesman Mr Seydou Sissouma said in the capital, Bamako.
He did not say exactly where the hostages were, but said they were in Malian hands. Earlier, a Malian minister said that the group would first be taken to the border town of Tessalit before being flown to Gao and then on to Bamako.
Optimism had surged for the release of the adventure holidaymakers after a flurry of diplomatic activity, but then dimmed after a German plane sent to wait on standby in northern Mali returned without them.
The 14 were among 32 Europeans seized in separate incidents in February and March while travelling in southern Algeria, famous for ancient grave sites, but also notorious for smuggling and banditry.
Algerian commandos freed 17 of the hostages in May, killing their kidnappers who Algeria said belonged to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat fighting for a purist Islamist state.
Heatstroke is thought to have killed another hostage, a 45-year-old German woman.
There was no immediate confirmation from German officials that the hostages had been freed.
Diplomatic sources said it would not have been possible to pick up the hostages after dark from the location where they were being held. Another Ger- man plane is in Bamako ready to fly the tourists back to Europe.
European governments have been reluctant to confirm or deny rumours that began swirling on Sunday over the possible release of the hostages.
After commandos freed the first group of tourists, the remaining hostages were moved to neighbouring Mali last month, officials said.
German and Malian negotiators made contact with the kidnappers in Mali, who reports said wanted some $5 million for each hostage as well as security guarantees.
The kidnappings were a setback for Algeria, which had seen a sharp fall in rebel attacks and a return of foreign tourism and investment after a decade of violence in which more than 100,000 people were killed after the cancellation of elections in 1992 that radical Islamists were poised to win. - (Reuters)