Islamist rebel group al Shabaab has demanded that the French government ceases to support Somalia's government if France wants to secure the release of a French security advisor the group has been holding for two months.
Iraqi authorities have received a body that may be one of five Britons kidnapped in May 2007, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband (pictured) said on Wednesday. Miliband said, however, that the identity could not be "definitively" confirmed.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Iran Monday to help locate and return to safety three missing Americans, who are thought to have been arrested by Iranian authorities after straying across the border from Iraq.
British PM Gordon Brown confirmed that two of the three hostages still held after a kidnapping in May 2007 in Iraq were "very likely" dead. Brown believes that computer consultant Peter Moore is the only remaining hostage of the group.
The situation in Somalia seems getting worse and worse, with the anarchy turning into a magnet for international jihadists and the power struggles of neighouring states. But how deeply should the international community get involved?
Somali Social Affairs Minister Mohammad Ali Ibrahim told FRANCE 24 that two kidnapped French agents are now both being held by the al Shabaab militant group. He said their abduction was in retaliation for their pirate relatives imprisoned in France.
Two French security consultants held hostage in Somalia are being held by two different Islamist militant groups. In an interview with FRANCE 24, Minister of Social Affairs Mohammad Ali Ibrahim said the hostages were in good health.
Insurgent sources said on Friday that both French hostages are now being held by a single rebel group; the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab movement. The two French agents were abducted on Tuesday and split up between rival rebel groups.
Two French security consultants being held hostage in Somalia have been separated and are being held by two different militant groups, Somali officials say.
Werner Greiner, (left of photo) a Swiss hostage abducted in Niger on January 22, was freed in northern Mali by al Qaeda's north African branch on Sunday, say local authorities. He was the last of six kidnapped Westerners to be freed.
