News

Canada's Foreign Affairs Department says it is aware of a reported demand by kidnappers holding two Canadian diplomats, but is not making any other comment.

Agence France-Press quotes a source in Mali as saying al-Qaeda's North African branch is demanding the release of two Mauritanian members.

There is no independent way to verify the report, which represents the group's first demand for a ransom.

AFP says Canada has enlisted the help of several countries, including Mali, in an effort to secure the release of Robert Fowler, the UN secretary general's special envoy to Niger, and his aide, diplomat Louis Guay.

Foreign affairs spokesperson Lisa Monette says officials are aware of the media report but had no comment, while a United Nations spokeswoman also had no comment.

The two Canadians disappeared mid-December in Niger, while the four Europeans – two Swiss, a German woman and a British man – were kidnapped last month on the Mali-Niger border.

Earlier this week, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed in an audio tape played on the Al Jazeera television network that it was holding the two Canadians and four Europeans hostage.

It made no demands at that time, but has in the past obtained ransoms for western tourists kidnapped in the vast Sahara Desert region.

Earlier this month, AFP said a purported video recording of Mr. Fowler and Mr. Guay had been turned over to Canadian authorities.

Mr. Fowler, Mr. Guay and their driver, Soumana Moukaila, disappeared in mid-December when returning from a visit to a gold mine.

Their car was found abandoned about 50 kilometres northeast Nigers' capital, Niamey.

The president of Niger, Mamadou Tandja, has blamed Mr. Fowler's abduction on a rebel group from the northern Niger ethnic minority of Tuareg nomads who are battling the government.

The website of a splinter group of Tuareg rebels, the Front des Forces de Redressement, initially posted a claim of responsibility, but that was quickly denied by the faction's leader.

Mr. Fowler, 64, was a senior adviser to several prime ministers, starting with Pierre Trudeau, and played a leading role in thwarting the trade of so-called blood diamonds in Angola.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is an Algeria-based militant group that joined Osama bin Laden's terror network in 2006 and conducts dozens of bombings or ambushes each month.

Western intelligence officials in Algeria have told The Associated Press they believe the UN diplomats were initially abducted by local gunmen, bandits or Tuaregs, and later traded to the al-Qaeda group.

The two members who they want in exchange for the Canadians are being held in one of the countries of the Sahel region, which includes Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Chad.