Kidnap industry funding Mali's 'gangster-jihadists'

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Adama Diarra / Reuters fileMilitiaman from the Ansar Dine Islamic group, who said they come from Niger and Mauritania, ride on a vehicle at Kidal in northeastern Mali in this June 16 file photograph. By David Lewis and Adama DiarraReutersTIMBUKTU, Mali -- A military helicopter arced through the dusty yellow haze and dropped onto the sand a few kilometers from Timbuktu on April 24, settling inside a ring of Islamists armed with AK-47s and anti-aircraft guns.

A general from neighboring Burkina Faso and a Swiss government aid worker emerged and joined an Islamist leader sheltering in a tent; they exchanged pleasantries over roasted goat and cans of fruit juice. About an hour later, after the Swiss official and Islamist leader had spent five minutes alone in the helicopter, a pickup truck arrived carrying Beatrice Stockly, a Swiss missionary who had been kidnapped nine days earlier.

"I don't know what they talked about, but soon after the Islamist left the helicopter, the hostage arrived," said a witness who was on the helicopter that whisked Stockly, who arrived wearing a veil, to freedom.

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