French National Kidnapped By Ansaru CallsFor “Negotiations”
Friday released a video of a French national kidnapped in
December, the SITE jihadi tracking website said.
In the video, posted online, the hostage identifies himself as
63-year-old Francis Collomp, an engineer with the French
firm Vergnet, who was “kidnapped in Rimi in Katsina state
on 19 December 2012 till today, 25 September 2013.”
The hostage appears wearing a white t-shirt, with an
unidentified person holding a weapon in the background.
If authentic, it would be the first video of Collomp to emerge
since his abduction.
Parts of the short statement are not clear, but he can be
heard calling for “negotiations” for his “safe release.”
In the latter half of the three-minute video, the camera
focuses on an Arabic statement that addresses “the
government(s) of France and Nigeria,” according to the
translation provided by SITE.
While there is no direct threat of further attacks, or on
Collomp’s life, the statement vows to treat “treachery and
treason” by the French or Nigerian governments with
“reciprocity.”
France’s foreign ministry told AFP it was trying to
authenticate the video and was in contact with Collomp’s
family.
Ansaru is considered by some to be a breakaway faction of
Boko Haram, Nigeria’s more prominent Islamist group which
has waged a deadly insurgency since 2009.
The links between the two organisations remain in question,
but some analysts have said that Ansaru might have
emerged from a faction within Boko Haram that sought to
specifically target foreign interests.
Ansaru has been blamed for the 2011 kidnapping of a
Briton and an Italian national in northern Nigeria. Both
hostages were killed in March of last year.
Britain, which has formally labelled Ansaru a terrorist
organisation, said the group likely has ties to Al-Qaeda’s
north Africa franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Collomp, who had been working on a wind power project in
Katsina, was taken after a group of some 30 gunmen
stormed the compound where he was staying.
The gate outside his home was said to have been riddled
with bullet holes after the attack.
Ansaru claimed the abduction days later, citing as a
justification France’s push for military intervention against
the Islamist rebels who had seized northern Mali.
Ansaru also claimed the kidnapping of seven foreign
nationals working on a construction project in northern
Bauchi state in February.
A video later posted online appeared to show some of those
hostages being killed.
After raising its international profile, Ansaru’s prominence
faded and it has not been linked to an attack for several
months.
The Islamist violence in northern Nigeria has however
continued unchecked, with hundreds of people killed this
year in attacks blamed on Boko Haram.
Northeast Nigeria has been under a state of emergency
since mid-May, when the military launched an offensive
aimed at crushing the insurgency.
But the slaughter of dozens of people in recent weeks,
mainly civilians, has cast doubt on the success of the military
campaign.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and top oil
producer, where most in the north are Muslim and the
south is predominately Christian.
Boko Haram has said it wants to create an Islamic state in
the north and is thought to primarily have a domestic
agenda.
Ansaru is seen by some as having a more international
outlook, perhaps more closely aligned with Al-Qaeda-
affiliated groups.
Source: Vanguard
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