The kidnapping of a Spaniard in southern Algeria by members of a jihadist group is the second kidnapping of a Westerner in barely a week in this region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Thursday the kidnapping of a Spanish citizen in North Africa and stated that « the government is actively working to clarify the facts and provide assistance. »
« Various reliable sources confirm that a Spanish citizen is currently being held against his will in North Africa, » the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Although initial reports from Algeria indicated that the kidnapped individual was a woman, it has now been confirmed that it is a man, captured by members of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) in the south of the country and transferred to Mali, where he is being held hostage.
According to the newspaper *El País*, the victim is a Spanish citizen in his sixties, captured in southern Algeria by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS), who was later transferred to neighboring Mali.
In October 2011, Spanish aid workers Ainhoa Fernández and Enric Gonyalons, along with Italian Rosella Urru, were kidnapped by armed men in the Sahrawi refugee camps of Tindouf in Algeria, then under the control of the Polisario terrorist group. They were subsequently transferred to Mali, where they were released in July 2012 after 271 days in captivity.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises that the terrorist threat, the presence of criminal groups, and the risk of kidnappings are realities in the southern region and strongly discourages travel to this area.