Niger Militants Kidnap Seven People

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PARIS, FRANCE (GaeaTimes.com)- On Thursday, France’s state-owned nuclear reactor builder Areva’s spokeswoman Pauline Briand confirmed to media sources that seven people of its company have been kidnapped in Niger. The seven people which include five French, a Madagascan and a Togolese citizen were kidnapped overnight Wednesday to Thursday near the town of Arlit that lies at the north of Niger. The French Foreign Ministry on its part said to media sources that the ministry is trying to confirm the kidnappings and find the whereabouts of the missing citizens.

The region of Niger from where the seven people had gone missing is known for Al-Qaeda militant insurgency reportedly. An anonymous security official of Niger said reportedly that “The attackers were probably elements of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb”. He also added that there are likely chances of the seven being kidnapped by bandits who reportedly sell their hostages to the ‘jihad-ists’. French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero however declined to make any such comments and held that the state’s services have been mobilized especially at the Niamey embassy and the foreign ministry crisis center.

Reports claim that the two out of the seven kidnapped in Niger were Areva’s employees and French citizens while the five others were working in the country for an Areva subcontractor. The news of the kidnapping was also confirmed by Areva and its subcontractor engineering firm Satom who said that six employees and an employee’s wife had been kidnapped. Niger government spokesman Laouali Dan Dah maintained that the police and the military have taken certain measures to quickly trace the whereabouts of the missing people without putting the “hostages’ lives in danger”.