French journalists killed in Mali

Two French journalists have been killed after they were kidnapped in the northern Mali town of Kidal, France's foreign ministry has confirmed.

The ministry said in a statement that Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont, journalists for the French radio station RFI, 'were found dead in Mali'.

RFI earlier confirmed the pair were taken at 13:00 GMT by armed men in Kidal.

They had finished interviewing a local political leader when they were taken.

Ambeiry Ag Rhissa, a local official of the MNLA ethnic Tuareg separatist group, said they had been interviewing him.

'When they left, I heard a strange noise outside,' he told Reuters news agency by telephone.

'I immediately went out to see and when I opened my door, a turbaned man pointed a gun at me and told me go back inside.'

Sources said four men forced the journalists into a truck which was then driven off into the surrounding desert, sources said.

Kidnappings

The BBC's international development correspondent Mark Doyle, who was in Kidal just two days ago, describes it as a small place with a population of some 10,000.

He says it is at the epicentre of a political dispute between ethnic Tuareg nomads and the rest of the population of Mali, who are black Africans.

There are 200 French troops and 200 UN peacekeepers as well as a Malian army base in Kidal.

Questions are now bound to be asked about how the two journalists could be seized in broad daylight under the noses of hundreds of foreign and Malian soldiers, our correspondent says.

Earlier this week, four Frenchmen were released three years after being kidnapped by al-Qaeda-linked gunmen targeting French firms operating a uranium mine in neighbouring Niger.

The hostages had been held in the deserts of northern Mali.

Jubilation at their release was tempered by speculation that the French government had made as much as a 20m euros (£17m; $26m) ransom.

Hostage-taking has become a big money-making business by extremist groups in the Sahara, say observers.

Much of it goes towards buying the means to carry out more kidnappings: Procuring four-wheel drive jeeps, fuel, weapons and GPS systems, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner reports.

France led an operation to oust Islamist rebels from northern Mali - its former colony - earlier this year, sending in thousands of troops.

It handed over responsibility for security to a UN force in the summer.

But French troops are still in the country helping to prevent a resurgence of militant activity in the region.