CAIRO: The kidnappers of 11 European tourists and 8 Egyptians who were taken in a remote desert area of southwestern Egypt on Friday night have demanded $6 million to free them, an Egyptian government official said early Tuesday. Negotiations were under way, said the official, Magdy Radi, a cabinet spokesman.
The tourism group was ambushed by armed masked men while driving off-road vehicles in a rugged, remote area called Kark Talh, government officials said. Five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian were in the group, along with an Egyptian police officer, four Egyptian drivers, two Egyptian tour guides and the managing director of the tour company, the government said. Egypt's Ministry of Tourism said that the kidnappers drove toward the border with Sudan.
The ministry said in a statement that the tour company's managing director phoned his wife, and ANSA, the Italian news agency, reported that the ministry said she was negotiating with the kidnappers. The owner of the company, Aegyptus, was identified by ANSA as Ibrahim Abdelrahim, and his wife as Kristen Butterwick-Abdelrahim.
In New York on Monday afternoon, Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said the hostages had all been freed, according to Reuters. He spoke on the eve of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.
But Radi said that his information was wrong. "They have not been released yet, " he said. "The negotiations are still going on."
News that tourists were kidnapped in Upper Egypt, which was once a hotbed of radical Islamic terrorism, at first raised fears of a potentially crippling blow to tourism, one of the main pillars of the Egyptian economy.
Egyptian officials disclosed the kidnapping only on Monday, after it was discussed by Italian officials in Rome. But once it was made public, officials here sought to underscore that the victims were in a remote area closer to Sudan that any major Egyptian city and that it was a "mobsterlike" criminal attack and not one carried out by religious-inspired radicals.
The kidnapping occurred in the New Valley governate, the least densely populated region of Egypt. It is primarily known for its dates, sweetened in the desert sun, and desert safaris.
"At this point in time, there are no indications whatsoever that this incident is linked to any organized act of terror," the Ministry of Tourism said in a statement.
Diaa Rashwan, an expert in radical Islamic movements at the state's chief research center, the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, agreed with the assessment.
"Talking about ransom is not in line with the method of Muslim extremists," he said. "They generally kill or make conditions that are very difficult to achieve."
Nevertheless, the kidnappings come at a time of crisis for Egypt. The nation is suffering severe inflation — especially for food staples — and a seemingly endless series of strikes among state workers. Its upper house of Parliament was recently gutted in a fire that rescue workers could not control for hours. Two weeks ago, more than 100 people were killed in a rockslide that crushed a neighborhood east of Cairo.
"Any event like this is extremely harmful to the Egyptian economy," said Samir Tobar, an economist at Zagazig University in the Nile Delta north of Cairo. "These people cannot possibly love their country. Egypt gets more than $3 billion a year from tourism."
Rachel Donadio contributed reporting from Rome.
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