MALI: FEARS HAVE BEEN GROWING FOR THE HEALTH OF 14 EUROPEAN HOSTAGE HELD FOR ALMOST 6 MONTHS IN THE INHOSPITABLE DESERT OF NORHTERN MALI
Record ID:
647921
MALI: FEARS HAVE BEEN GROWING FOR THE HEALTH OF 14 EUROPEAN HOSTAGE HELD FOR ALMOST 6 MONTHS IN THE INHOSPITABLE DESERT OF NORHTERN MALI
- Title: MALI: FEARS HAVE BEEN GROWING FOR THE HEALTH OF 14 EUROPEAN HOSTAGE HELD FOR ALMOST 6 MONTHS IN THE INHOSPITABLE DESERT OF NORHTERN MALI
- Date: 9th August 2003
- Summary: (W8) BAMAKO, MALI (AUGUST 9, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV EXTERIOR OF 'POLYCLINIQUE PASTEUR' HOSPITAL IN BAMAKO 0.04 2. CU SIGN OF HOSPITAL 0.09 3. MCU (French) DR FANE, DOCTOR AT PASTEUR HOSPITAL, SAYING: "After six months of detention, their state of health must be deteriorating. They are in an unnatural environment. The psychological stress, the lack of necessary food, the climate, dehydration, the lack of adequate medication, all this means that their condition will necessarily be deteriorating." 0.43 4. CU OF BADGE ON FANE'S MEDICAL COAT 0.48 5. SLV FANE TALKING WITH ANOTHER MAN 0.57 (W8)DESERT OF BOOUILEM, MALI (RECENT - AUGUST 7, 2003)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 6. LV GOAT EATING PLANT IN DESERT 1.02 7. LV THREE GOATS 1.05 8. LV OF TUAREG MAN WORKING IN DESERT (2 SHOTS) 1.14 9. LVSAND DUNES (2 SHOTS) 1.22 (W8)BAMAKO, MALI (RECENT - AUGUST 6, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 10. SLV/SV STREET SCENES (4 SHOTS) 1.39 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 24th August 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAMAKO AND DESERT OF BOOUILEM, MALI
- Country: Mali
- Reuters ID: LVA9FYN8RI70I4025MSBJ7B4M864
- Story Text: Fears have been growing for the health of 14
European hostages held for almost 6 months in the
inhospitable desert of northern Mali.
According to media reports, six of the 14 hostages
being held in the Sahara by Algerian Islamic militants are
gravely ill.
Doctors say the extreme heat and the shortage of food
and clean water could be as deadly as the bites of
scorpions hiding in the sand. Diarrhoea, sunstroke and
dehydration are ever-present risks.
Dr Fane, of the Pasteur Hospital in Mali's capital,
Bamako, said on Saturday (August 9) that after nearly six
months in captivity the hostage's condition will be
deteriorating by the day.
""After six months of detention, their state of health
must be deteriorating. They are in an unnatural
environment. The psychological stress, the lack of
necessary food, the climate, dehydration, the lack of
adequate medication, all this means that their condition
will necessarily be deteriorating", he said.
Heatstroke is already thought to have killed a 15th
hostage, a 45-year-old German woman.
According to Algerian media reports, six others are ill
and need urgent medical treatment. But negotiations with
the kidnappers, who have demanded a hefty ransom, have so
far failed to make much progress.
The hostages were among a group of 32 European
holidaymakers captured as they travelled without guides in
southern Algeria, famous for ancient grave sites but also
known as a hideout for Islamic hardliners, bandits and
smugglers.
Algerian commandos freed 17 hostages in May, killing
their kidnappers who Algeria says were militants of the
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an Islamic
group little known abroad.
Since then, the hunt for the remaining captives -- nine
Germans, four Swiss and a Dutch national -- has moved to
the dunes of neighbouring Mali, where they were taken last
month.
German and Malian negotiators have made contact with
the kidnappers, who according to German media reports want
$5 million for each hostage as well security guarantees.
But efforts to find them are complicated by the fact
that the abductors are whisking the hostages from one
remote hideout to another in a no man's land stretching
across 600,000 square km (230,000 square miles).
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None