A video showing a French national kidnapped in Algeria was released on Monday by a group linked to the Islamic State (IS). The hostage called on French President François Hollande not to intervene in Iraq.

Advertising Read more

The almost four-minute video appeared on jihadist websites Monday evening shortly after the French Foreign Ministry confirmed reports that a 55-year-old French national had been kidnapped in northeastern Algeria on Sunday during a hiking trip.

Flanked by militants wielding assault rifles, the man identified his name, age and date of birth before issuing a statement to Hollande.

"I am in the hands of Jund al-Khalifa, an Algerian armed group,” said the hostage. “This armed group is asking me to ask you (President François Hollande) not to intervene in Iraq. They are holding me as a hostage and I ask you, Mr. President, to do everything to get me out of this bad situation, and I thank you."

The Jund al-Khalifa – variously translated as the “Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria” or “Caliphate Soldiers of Algeria” – emerged earlier this month, when a regional commander of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) released a statement announcing that he had broken away from al Qaeda and had sworn loyalty to IS group.

FRANCE 24 has made an editorial decision not to broadcast the video.

French officials confirmed the authenticity of the video late on Monday. A statement from the French presidential office said France and Algeria were “fully cooperating” on the case. Hollande spoke with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal by phone, the statement added, noting that Paris and Algiers were in constant touch.

France has joined the US in carrying out air strikes against the IS group, which has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria. On September 19, French fighter jets bombed a fuel and weapons depot outside the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Militants threaten to execute hostage

In the video, one of the hooded militants reads out a message threatening to execute the hostage if France does not halt airstrikes in Iraq in 24 hours.

The 55-year-old native of Nice in southern France was hiking in the Tizi Ouzou area in the Kabylie region east of the Algerian capital of Algiers when he was kidnapped on Sunday evening, according to Algerian security officials.

Algerian security sources said the abducted Frenchman was a mountain guide who was hiking with two Algerian friends after spending the night at a ski lodge near the town of Tikdjda, some 110 kilometers (65 miles) from Algiers. The militants released the two Algerian hikers and abducted the French national.

A mountainous and wooded area, the Kabylie region is an ideal hideout for armed groups and remains a theatre of militant Islamist groups decades after the end of the country's brutal 1990s civil war.

IS audio threatens ‘spiteful and filthy French’



The video was released hours after the Islamic State (IS) group issued an audio statement calling on Muslims worldwide to kill citizens of nations that have joined the fight against the jihadist group in Iraq.

In a nearly 42-minute audio statement released online late Sunday, Islamic State group spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani called on followers to “kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war” against the group.

Responding to the IS statement on Monday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the country was capable of handling the threat.

"This is not the first time France has been threatened by terrorist groups who attack the values of tolerance,” said Cazeneuve. "Even if there is no such thing as zero risk, today we are taking 100 percent precautions."

However, Paris urged nationals abroad to exercise "utmost caution" after the threat.

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe