According to a Mauritanian source, the anti-terrorist police of that country arrested two men presented as the kidnappers of three Westerners (two Spaniards and an Italian) in October in the Rabouni camp near Tindouf, in Algeria, this Monday in Nouadhibou, in northern Mauritania. "The two men who had taken hostage" the Spanish and Italian nationals "in a Sahrawi refugee camp (in Algeria) were arrested in an apartment they had rented in the heart of Nouadhibou through one of their relatives," said this source on condition of anonymity. This same source indicated that the two alleged terrorists, who had been in Nouadhibou for 11 days, were transferred urgently to Nouakchott. It stated that it had, for the moment, no indication of the fate of the hostages.

One of the two men, who appears to be "the main perpetrator of the kidnapping, allegedly stormed the camp. He was born in 1982 and goes by the name of Maminna Alaaguir Ahmed Baba. The second man, Aghdafna Hamady Ahmed Baba, born in 1979, allegedly provided him with "valuable help during the kidnapping," reports the same source, which was not in a position to confirm or deny whether the two men were related. The alleged mastermind of the kidnappings, Maminna Alaaguir, had "notably shaved his beard" so as not to be recognised, it is indicated.

According to concordant sources, they are from the Oulad Dlim tribe and are members of the Polisario.

The three Westerners, all aid workers, were kidnapped on October 23 in the Rabouni camp during an attack attributed by the Polisario Front to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). All three were working in the camp for aid associations for the many Sahrawi refugees settled in this region at the gates of the Sahara and close to Mauritania and Mali.

On November 24 and 25, five Europeans were kidnapped and one killed in northern Mali, kidnappings and murder that AQIM has not claimed either, even if the kidnappers are suspected of belonging to or being linked to this organisation. The five new hostages are two French people kidnapped in Hombori, and three Europeans (a Swede, a Dutchman, and an Anglo-South African dual national) in Timbuktu.

AQIM has bases in northern Mali, from where it commits attacks, attempted attacks, kidnappings, and various forms of trafficking. It has intensified its activities in Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Algeria over the last two years.

It should be recalled that the European hostages kidnapped in Rabouni were allegedly handed over to elements of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in exchange for large sums of money.