News Article by REUTERS posted on September 27, 2008 at 23:49:11: EST (-5 GMT)
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Egypt hostages short of food, moved to Sudan CAIRO, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Kidnappers who seized 19 hostages in Egypt more than a week ago are running short of food and fuel, an Egyptian government source said on Saturday. The official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the kidnappers moved the hostages into Libya for a few hours on Friday to try to stock up on supplies before returning to Sudanese territory. "They are suffering from a severe shortage in food and fuel," the official said. Masked kidnappers snatched 11 Western tourists and eight Egyptians from a remote border area last week and whisked them into Sudan. The Egyptian government identified the tourists as five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian. Analysts say the kidnappers do not appear to have political or ideological motives, unlike the militant Islamists who attacked tourist targets in the Nile Valley and the Sinai peninsula in the 1990s and the middle of the current decade. Egyptian officials said the kidnappers were asking the German government for a large ransom. One security official put the figure at 6 million euros ($8.78 million). Egypt has said the kidnappers were relaying their demands through satellite telephone calls to the German wife of an Egyptian tour operator who is among the hostages. The man informed his wife about the shortage and told her they were back in Sudan, the government source said. Libya denied the hostages had been moved into its territory. Egyptian and German officials have also spoken to the kidnappers. The incident is an embarrassment to the Egyptian government. Tourism accounts for more than 6 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product. The remote region, which contains cave paintings thought to be about 10,000 years old, is accessible by desert vehicle from the conflict zones of Darfur and eastern Chad. Tour operators say they have seen an increase in banditry in the area over the past year. Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said he had no information about the latest developments and Tourism Minister Zoheir Garrana did not return phone calls seeking comment. |