WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-09-21 Time: 17:00:05 Posted By: News Poster
By Paul Melly, Chatham House, London
French military planes scoured the Sahara on Tuesday to look for seven hostages kidnapped in Niger last week. France’s Defence Minister Herve Morin says every effort is being made to track down the hostages, who are now thought to be in northern Mali.
The kidnappers are affiliated with an extremist group led by an Islamist, Abou Zeid, who is linked to Al Qaeda, the Niger government said Tuesday.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or Aqim, is a chief suspect in the kidnapping, but to date, no group has demanded a ransom or confirmed they are holding the hostages. Paul Melly, an associate fellow in the Africa program at Chatham House, tells RFI that the kidnappers could be other groups, such as the Tuareg or bandits.
But if the seven have been taken hostage by Aqim, “it is possible Aqim is anxious not to give away its location because there have been a number of raids by security forces of Saharan countries on Aqim, mostly in Mali, actually,” said Melly. He added that the hostage-takers have not contacted the media via satellite phone because they do not want to give their location away.
France’s military presence does not necessarily mean that they will step up military activities, said Melly, especially considering that within the past two years, two out of 19 hostages have been killed. The rest have been released without major military manoeuvres.
The seven hostages include five French nationals, a Malagasy and a Togolese. All the hostages work for two different French companies, Areva and Satom, mining uranium in the region.
Melly says that the French presence in the region could be a signal of intent or a way to say that the hostages will not be taken off the national agenda. “France obviously has a huge strategic investment in the uranium industry in Niger. It’s very important for Areva and the French nuclear industry as a source of supply,” he said.
Read or Listen to this story on the RFI website
Original Source: 
Original date published: 21 September 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009211010.html?viewall=1