Gunmen kidnapped three Westerners and killed a fourth in the historic northern Mali town of Timbuktu on Friday, the second hostage-taking in the region in two days, Malian government and local sources said. One government source and a local tourist guide identified the person who was killed as a German.
The guide said two of those taken hostage were Dutch and one South African, though there was no official confirmation of their nationalities. On Thursday two French nationals were kidnapped from their hotel in the same remote desert region, where local agents for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operate. Mohamed Ag Hamalek, a local tourist guide contacted by telephone by Reuters, described Friday's abduction. "They were taking a stroll when the armed men forced them into four-wheel-drives, they shot the German dead on the spot because he tried to resist," he said. Hamalek said the attackers sped off as security forces put up roadblocks and set off in pursuit.
Timbuktu, founded a thousand years ago and famous as a major trading centre for gold and salt, was one of the centres of a tourist sector that includes a famous festival of Malian music. The increased risk of kidnappings, either by Islamists or by local gunmen co-operating with them, has made large tracts of Mauritania, Mali and Niger no-go areas for Westerners. France's Europe 1 radio said the two were known to French secret services.