PARIS: A French hostage kidnapped two years ago in western Mali by the Al Qaeda-linked Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) is probably dead, France’s foreign ministry said yesterday. Gilberto Rodriguez-Leal was captured in November 2012 after crossing from Mauritania into Mali. Earlier yesterday, the group told AFP that he had been killed because France is “our enemy”. Rodriguez-Leal was one of two Frenchmen still held as hostages overseas. The other, Serge Lazarevic, was taken in November 2011 in the north of Mali by al Qaeda’s North African arm AQIM.
Reuters
