20100727
africanews

France's government vowed to step up the fight against Al-Qaeda in northern Africa after militants killed a French hostage in the Sahel desert region. "The fight against terrorism continues and it is going to strengthen, particularly against AQMI," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told Europe 1 radio.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Monday that Germaneau's killing "will not go unpunished." He said the government had authenticated the group's claim to have killed Germaneau although his body has not been recovered.

The group, a northern Africa-based affiliate of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, claimed the killing of Michel Germaneau, a 78-year-old French aid worker who was kidnapped in Niger.

In Mali, a local elected official told AFP that Germaneau had been beheaded after the raid, in the presence of Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, the leader of an AQIM cell that has been blamed for killing a Briton, Edwin Dyer, in 2009 and his body had not been recovered and pointed out that Dyer's had never been found either.