The original post was dumped here from the Sahara Travel Forum where, as mentioned, a calmer thread has reported on this event for nearly 6 months without hyperbole. It is a thread to which the OP has not contributed so far.
To clarify, the German killed was not a biker nor an acquaintance of Stephen M, and if you don’t follow the subject it's worth knowing that tourist abductions in the Sahara have been going on since 2003 (#1 on the map below), and have escalated to nearly a dozen grabs in the last 3 years.
The full list and outcomes, where known, is
here.
Last November, Timbuktu was thought to be on the very edge of the safe zone, or way
beyond it according to maps published by the FCO at the time. The Mali map now is
all red.
Various factions are involved in the abductions, originally under the Algerian jihadist banner, now less so as extracting multi-million euro ransoms has proved to be so lucrative.
If anyone’s interested, the situation has become further complicated in that, the latest Malian Tuareg rebellion in January (largely a separate issue from terrorist activity) has lead to the desert north of the river declared as free, independent Azawad (Tuareg homeland) no longer under Malian state control (not that it ever really was which is why the kidnapping business prospered).
And unfortunately, of the two Tuareg factions involved in that rebellion, the one with closer links to AQIM seems to have gained the upper hand, a development which has probably set back the release of the dozen European hostages stuck up there, some held for nearly 2 years.
AFAIU, Stephen M was travelling on his RSA passport and so the Brit FCO is not directly involved in this case, but who would not wish a speedy resolution and happy outcome for
all Saharan hostages?
Let's lock this up and leave it at that.
(other mods feel free to take other actions)
Chris S
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