Four terrorists, including a bomb-maker, were released from prison in the African nation of Mali in exchange for the freedom this year of Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay, high-ranking government sources in Mali have confirmed.
The released prisoners were members of al-Qaeda’s increasingly powerful branch in the Sahara region of northern and western Africa. Two of them had been arrested in the northern Mali desert town of Gao last year after an accidental explosion while they were manufacturing a bomb, the sources say.
The prisoner release, which the Canadian government maintains it played no part in, was confirmed by government sources in Mali and by a local intermediary who was intimately involved in negotiations to free the Canadian hostages from the Sahara terrorist group, known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group, formed in 2006 after a merger between al-Qaeda and an Algerian-based terrorist group, seeks to expel Westerners and set up an Islamic theocracy in Africa.
Several sources said three of the released prisoners were Mauritanian members of AQIM, which has members from across West Africa and North Africa. One of the prisoners, known as Sidi, was a “chemist,” a bomb-maker, who was involved in last year’s explosion. A second prisoner, known as Tayoub, was a logistics expert who was caught after the same explosion.
A fourth prisoner, Mohamed, was in the process of being released, but was killed in a car accident during the transfer.
In addition to the prisoner release, Malian sources support earlier reports that several million dollars in cash was given to the kidnappers, although the exact origins of the money remain unclear.
Mr. Fowler and Mr. Guay, kidnapped in Niger last December, were taken across the border to Mali and held in captivity for 130 days in a remote corner of the Sahara desert. They were the focus of a massive Canadian effort to free them.
Mr. Fowler had been one of the most powerful bureaucrats in Ottawa, where he served as deputy defence minister and as a senior prime ministerial adviser. He was also Canada’s longest-serving United Nations ambassador. In July, 2008, he took an unannounced assignment as a special UN envoy to mediate between the Niger government and a rebel movement. Mr. Guay, his aide in the Niger mission, is a former Canadian ambassador to Gabon.
Robert Fowler stands in the gallery of the House of Commons as he is recognized by the Speaker and MPs on May 26, a month after his release.— The Canadian Press
Speaking in detail for the first time about the circumstances that led to the diplomats’ release, Mali officials said they felt under heavy pressure to find ways to resolve the hostage situation, to the point they were worried that Canada might withdraw aid if the hostages were not freed.
Canada’s aid to Mali has increased sharply in recent years, from about $20-million in 2002 to more than $100-million last year. Mali is now one of the five biggest recipients of Canadian aid, and it is one of the few African countries to remain on Ottawa’s trimmed-down priority list for foreign aid this year.
Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, director of the Northern Mali Development Agency in the Mali government, said the four prisoners were released because Canada is a “big partner” of the country and needed to be kept happy. The prisoners who were involved in bomb-making were “very dangerous” but “not very well-known,” he said in an interview.
“Maybe releasing … prisoners won’t make such a big difference,” he said. “Sometimes, with an enemy, a prisoner exchange takes place.”
