Foreign Hostages Might Be New Video from Nigeria
A video has surfaced from Nigeria that seems to be showing two foreign workers, a Briton and an Italian, who were kidnapped last May, in a town located along Nigeria's border with Niger.
The video is currently being checked for its authenticity by British and Italian authorities.
The group thought to have abducted the men is a North African wing of Al-Qaida known as Al-Qaida in the Islamic Magreb. The group can be traced back to an Algerian extremist group that built an alliance with Al-Qaida in 2006.
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Authorities from both countries have expressed their regret that the sensitive information has become public and urged media against speculation over whether the two men are indeed the kidnapped workers from last May.
The two men that the video might be displaying were engineers working for an Italian construction firm in Birnin Kebbi in northwestern Nigeria. The workers were partaking in the building of the state headquarters for the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The men were kidnapped on the night of May 12 from their living accommodations by gunmen in a raid. Another Italian foreign worker managed to escape the same fate in the raid by scaling a fence.
The minute-long video footage, in which the two men give their names and urge their governments to comply with the demands of their captors who are likely to be al-Qaida, was sent to the AFP news agency in the Ivory Coast.
If the video is authenticated, it would be the first time Al-Qaida in the Islamic Magreb will be confirmed to be operating in Nigeria.
The British Foreign Office released a statement on the video, "A video has been released allegedly showing the hostages and officials are urgently checking its authenticity."
The statement continued, "We are working to secure the hostages safe and swift release. We ask those holding the two men to show compassion and release them, enabling them to rejoin their families."
