TWO SPANISH aid workers, held hostage by al-Qaeda’s North African branch for 268 days, flew back to Spain early yesterday morning. Looking happy but thin and tired, they arrived at Barcelona airport on a Spanish military plane to scenes of jubilation.
Roque Pascual (50) and Albert Villalta (35) had been in Mauritania in a convoy carrying aid to sub-Saharan Africa when they were seized at gunpoint last November by members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
A third aid worker, Alicia Gamez, was also kidnapped but she was released in March. She was at the airport to greet her colleagues, as were many other members of Barcelona-Accio Solidaria, a Catalan-based NGO which had been part of the ill-fated convoy.
Mr Pascual and Mr Villalta were held in an AQIM camp in the desert in Mali, while negotiations involving the governments of Spain, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso were carried out. The kidnappers demanded a $5 million ransom and the release of prisoners from Mauritanian jails.
It is not clear whether money was paid, but it is believed the extradition to Mali of Omar Ould Hama, a Malian militant sentenced in Mauritania for November’s kidnapping, was an important step.
Last month, AQIM killed Michel Germaneau (78),a French man also held hostage, when the French military tried to release him by force. Mustafa Chafi, the Malian diplomat who had been acting as the intermediary, said this was the most dangerous time.
“We thought we had lost them. The kidnappers were about to kill the two men.”
Mr Villalta and Mr Pascual were accompanied home from Burkina Faso by Soraya Rodriguez, the Spanish secretary of state for co-operation, who flew out to bring them home. Mr Villalta walked with a crutch, still suffering bullet wounds to the leg when he tried to escape.
“They treated us well,” he said. “We lived like them, we ate what they ate and slept like they did, but it was hard in the desert. They are used to it, but we are not.” Both men thanked the Spanish government, and Mr Pascual apologised to his family for all the worry.
“For the rest of my life, I will try to make it up to you for what I put you through,” he said.