Algeria Summit States Should Urge End to Murders, Kidnappings

(Dakar) - Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has in recent months stepped up targeting tourists and aid workers for murder and kidnapping in Mali, Niger, and Mauritania, Human Rights Watch said today. AQIM should immediately and unconditionally free hostages in its custody and end attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said.

The organization also called on foreign ministers from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, meeting today in Algeria, to categorically denounce AQIM's attacks against civilians, as well as a threat by AQIM made in a March 11 statement to Spanish Daily El Pais, which underscored the group's willingness to attack civilians. The threat suggested Spain would be "paid in kind" in "a war that does not distinguish between civilians and militants."

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you again for your participation in the Arab Coalition for Darfur Civil Society Conference in Morocco last week. We enjoyed very interesting and informative meetings and lively discussions.  You have met my colleague Marwa El-Ansary from Crisis Action. She will get in touch with you individually later to carry on some of the discussions you had in Morocco, but as a matter of urgency we would like to publish the open letter from the Arab Civil Society organizations to the League of Arab States. As an achievement of the conference we would like to remind the Arab States of their crucial role in securing Sudan and Darfur’s peaceful future and of their responsibility to prevent a renewed conflict risking instability and further suffering, not only in Sudan but in the whole region.