The Mauritanian news agency Nouakchott reported that it had received a statement signed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Al-Qaeda in North Africa, AQIM) in which the group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of German citizen Edgar Fritz Raupach, an engineer who disappeared in Nigeria on January 25, 2012. The statement was accompanied by a video clip of Raupach dated March 18, 2012, that was posted on YouTube by Nouakchott.
The clip, 1:40 in duration, shows Raupach in front of his captors. Speaking in German and English, he identifies himself as an engineer who worked in Kano, Nigeria, where he was kidnapped. The video was produced by the AQIM media company Al-Andalus.
Both the statement and video were released by Nouakchott prior to their official release on Al-Qaeda forums online.
In the statement, AQIM said that it would free Raupach only in exchange for the release of German jihadi Filiz Gelowicz, who is currently imprisoned in Germany. It warned against any attempt to free Raupach by force, and noted the fate of British citizen Chris McManus and Italian citizen Franco Lamolinara, who were recently killed by the Nigerian rebel group Boko Haram in a failed rescue mission.
...The full text of this post is available to subscribers.
Please login or register to request subscription information from MEMRI
