Al-Qaeda's North African branch has posted to jihadist websites a purported audio message from the five French hostages kidnapped two weeks ago in Niger. The four-minute tape was accompanied by photographs of the hostages and their captors aired on Thursday by Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera as 'proof' they are still alive.
"We were abducted at night from where we were staying by The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb," says the alleged voice of one of the hostages, after introducing himself, AKI reported.
The hostage is 'interviewed' in French by his captors, who ask him why he has been kidnapped.
Three other people then introduce themselves, speaking in French, and say they were kidnapped by Al-Qaeda.
The photos show seven hostges - the five French nationals and one each from Madagascar and Togo - sitting on the sand as several gun-toting men in Bedouin clothing stand behind them.
It is impossible to identify where the photos were taken. One of the hostages' faces has been obscured, possibly that of the only woman in the group.
Jihadists seldom show women's faces in photos and videos.
The release of the photos and audio tape show that Al-Qaeda intends to begin negotiations with the French authorities for the hostages' release, according to pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat.
The group was snatched from a uranium mine on 16 September, and is reportedly being held in a mountainous region in northwestern Mali.
French officials said they had not received any demands from AQIM, the group that carried out the kidnapping.
The hostages are employees of two French firms, Areva and Vinci, which do business in the mining town of Arlit in Niger.
Some previous AQIM kidnappings have ended with multi-million dollar ransoms being paid.
The Spanish government reportedly paid nearly 5 million dollars to free two aid workers from Mali in August.
AQIM emerged in early 2007 from an Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which aligned itself with Al-Qaeda. The group has waged a campaign of suicide bomb attacks and ambushes in Algeria, and in recent years has become more active in the Sahara.
It has in the past killed several hostages, most recently Michel Germaneau, a 78-year-old French hostage being held in Mali, who was executed in July.