Russia’s foreign ministry said on Friday it was working to free two geologists employed by a Russian company who were taken hostage by an Al Qaeda affiliate in western Niger last month.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0video released\u00a0by Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) earlier in August showed two captives, who said they were taken hostage in the insurgency-hit Tillaberi region while working there.<\/p>\n
It was not clear when the video was filmed or where. It did not include a ransom demand.<\/p>\n
In emailed comments, the Russian ministry said that one of the hostages, Oleg Gret, was reportedly a Russian citizen while another, Yuri Yurov, had Ukrainian citizenship.<\/p>\n
Overall, JNIM kidnapped four people and killed several Nigerien soldiers during the incident on July 18, the ministry said.<\/p>\n
Russia has sent an official request to the Niger authorities and Malian partners to ask for assistance, it said.<\/p>\n
“We intend to continue our efforts to free the hostages,” it said, adding that its cooperation with Sahel states will continue to grow despite insecurity in the region.<\/p>\n
Since seizing power in a coup last year, Niger’s junta, like the military rulers in Mali and Burkina Faso, has kicked out Western forces, and forged closer military and business ties with Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Friday it was working to free two geologists employed by a Russian company who were taken hostage by an Al Qaeda affiliate in western Niger last month. A\u00a0video released\u00a0by Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) earlier in August showed two captives, who said they were taken hostage in the insurgency-hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":9,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"Reuters","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,1129,27],"tags":[1501,208,2850,187,383,373,2923],"class_list":["post-12836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-security","category-west-africa","tag-al-qaeda","tag-burkina-faso","tag-jamaa-nusrat-ul-islam-wa-al-muslimin-jnim","tag-mali","tag-niger","tag-russia","tag-tillaberi-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}