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

  • 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
Register