Mauritania official: Abducted Spanish aid workers moved to Mali

Dec 2, 2009, 11:00 GMT

Nouakchott/Madrid - Three Spanish aid workers abducted Sunday night had been moved to Mali, a high-ranking Mauritanian official said Wednesday, adding a further twist to contradictory reports on the fate of the hostages.

The abductors were criminals cooperating with the North African branch of al-Qaeda, the official told the German Press Agency dpa on condition of anonymity.

Gangs trafficking in drugs and migrants had moved into abductions as a source of income, the official explained. The Mauritanian and Western Saharan coast is a popular transit route for African migrants trying to reach Spain.

The Spanish government has consistently said it could not confirm reports that the aid workers - two men and a woman - had been located.

Mauritanian security officials on Tuesday told dpa and a representative of the aid organization Barcelona Accio Solidaria that the aid workers had been found.

'We don't have anything new on the subject,' a Spanish government source told dpa.

The Spanish daily El Mundo on Wednesday quoted 'reliable sources' as saying the Spanish secret service had located the hostages, but that the Spanish government had not been in touch with the abductors. The sources denied media reports that the hostages had been released.

Mauritanian security forces on Monday launched a massive manhunt for the aid workers who were abducted the previous night at gunpoint as they were returning to Nouakchott from the port city of Nouadhibou, near the border with Western Sahara.

The Spaniards were in the last vehicle of an aid convoy.