ICRC suspends staff movement in N Mali

The Red Cross in Mali has suspended the movement of its staff in the African country’s northern region after some of its workers were kidnapped.s

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday that it has suspended its staff movement in the northern desert region after four ICRC members and another aid worker disappeared while traveling in a vehicle to Gao on Saturday.

ICRC spokesman Jean-Yves Clemenzo said that the vehicle was reported missing in northern Mali between the northern towns of Gao and Kidal, adding that all five kidnapped individuals are Malian citizens.

Also on Tuesday, Malian group known as the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) claimed responsibility for kidnapping the five, saying that they “are alive and in good health.”

MUJAO, an offshoot of al-Qaeda group in Maghreb, controlled Gao between April 2012 and January 2013. It has also claimed responsibility for other attacks in Africa, including twin car bombings in May 2013 that killed more than two dozen people in northwest Niger.

Unrest erupted in Mali after President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup on March 22, 2012.

SAB/PR/HB

Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/02/12/350333/icrc-suspends-staff-movement-in-n-mali/

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