ALGERIA: Algerian village close to where French national was kidnapped is safe, say residents

Record ID: 574389

  • Title: ALGERIA: Algerian village close to where French national was kidnapped is safe, say residents
  • Date: 23rd September 2014
  • Summary: AIT OUABAN, TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA (SEPTEMBER 23, 2014) (REUTERS) SCENE OF THE MOUNTAINS OF TIGEJDA VARIOUS OF THE HILLS AND MOUNTAINS OF AIT OUABAN VILLAGE A BANNER ANNOUNCING AIT OUABAN VILLAGE PEOPLE GATHERING IN THE STREET VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN THE STREET AN OLD MAN READING A NEWS PAPER (SOUNDBITE) (French) HAMID, 45 YEAR OLDS VILLAGER, SAYING: "Our village is safe, and people also nobody enters the village without permission, and this information is completely fake." VARIOUS OF VILLAGERS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MESSAOUD, 30 YEAR OLD VILLAGER, SAYING: "I don't speak French. There isn't any foreigner here. The kidnapping happened around Bouira and Tigejda but not here in Ait Ouaban, there isn't even a track though here, we do a detour to get to Tigejda and we go by car." MORE VILLAGERS GATHERING IN THE STREET (SOUNDBITE) (French) OMAR, 22 YEAR OLD VILLAGER, SAYING: "It's 100% safe here. Young men of my generation, for example, like me, I stay out until 2 A.M and we walk around the village and there is nothing to worry about. We hear about terrorist groups but they don't come into the village; maybe around the forest there are terrorists but in the village there is nothing, we sometimes walk in the forest and we have never met any terrorist." MORE VILLAGERS VARIOUS OF A STATUE STOLEN IMAGES OF THE MILITARY CARS IN THE MOUNTAINS
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7K1R9AVD5NT7XYKEZ768UJUJ1
  • Story Text: Algerian military and police set up checkpoints and sent troops into the mountainous easter Tizi Ouzou region, east of Algiers on Tuesday (September 23) to look for a Frenchman kidnapped by militants who threatened to execute him over France's intervention in Iraq.
    The Caliphate Soldiers, a splinter group linked to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, on Monday published a video claiming responsibility for the abduction and showed a man identifying himself as Herve Gourdel, a tourist from Nice.
    Gourdel was snatched late on Sunday as he and two Algerian companions drove through the mountains near the village of Ait Ouaban. Speaking to Reuters on Tuesday, residents of Ait Ouaban expressed surprise that a foreigner had been abducted close to their village, which they said was "100% safe."
    "Our village is safe for people. Also nobody enters the village without permission, and this information is completely fake," said Hamid.
    Another resident disputed the location of the kidnapping, saying it happened elsewhere.
    "I don't speak French. There isn't any foreigner here. The kidnapping happened around Bouira and Tigejda but not here in Ait Ouaban, there isn't even a track though here, we do a detour to get to Tigejda and we go by car," said Messaoud.
    The villagers said they were aware of militants operating in the area but none professed to encountering any - either in the village or in the forests nearby.
    "It's 100% safe here. Young men of my generation, for example, like me, I stay out until 2 A.M and we walk around the village and there is nothing to worry about. We hear about terrorist groups but they don't come into the village; maybe around the forest there are terrorists but in the village there is nothing, we sometimes walk in the forest and we have never met any terrorist," said Omar.
    French and Algerian officials and Gourdel's family said the outdoor guide and avid photographer was abducted just days after arriving in Algeria for a trekking holiday in the mountains.

    Gourdel's kidnapping was one of the first abductions of a foreigner by militants in Algeria since the end of that decade-long war which killed around 200,000 people.
    The Caliphate Soldiers group earlier this month announced it had broken with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, to back Islamic State, in another illustration of its deepening rivalries with Al Qaeda's core leadership.
    AQIM central region commander Khaled Abu Suleimane, who claimed leadership of the new group, is originally from and used to operate in the area where the French hostage was taken.
    Before the kidnapping, France had managed to reduce the number of its hostages held overseas from 10 to just one.
    Gourdel's family and friends said the Frenchman was passionate about nature and photography and had planned to spend around 10 days in Algeria.
    The group holding the Frenchman have vowed to kill him unless France halted its military intervention against Islamic State.
    Algeria's military fought a brutal war against Islamist militants in the 1990s, and attacks are rarer now in the North African state. But al Qaeda's regional affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and other groups are still active there.
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