Al-Qaeda frees gendarme held hostage in Mauritania

NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) - Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has freed a Mauritanian paramilitary police officer it had held hostage since an attack on a gendarmerie station almost three months ago, officials said Saturday.

"Ely Ould Moktar, kidnapped on December 20 from his unit in Adel Begrou, is now free and is in good health," said a statement from gendarmerie headquarters published by the official Mauritanian news agency.

A spokesman for AQIM confirmed the release to the online news agency Nouakchott Info and said he had been exchanged for a Malian without the help of any intermediaries.

"A gendarmerie unit came to the border on Saturday morning to hand over (the Malian) Ould Meddou to our fighters and pick up the gendarme," he said.

Adel Begrou, where the gendarme was snatched, is only four kilometres (two and a half miles) from the border with Mali.

A Malian military source contacted by AFP said Abderrahmane Ould Meddou was serving a five-year jail sentence in a Mauritanian prison for involvement in the abduction of an Italian couple in southern Mauritania in 2011.

"He is not a member of AQIM but just an informer who facilitated the kidnapping of the Italian couple," he said.

Mauritania, Algeria, Niger and Mali face growing insecurity from AQIM operations such as terror attacks, kidnappings of Westerners and various types of trafficking, including drugs, over a vast area difficult to police.