Follow-up re kidnappings near Gilf Kebir

Egypt Today

In September, a masked gang kidnapped eight Egyptians, five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian from Gilf Kebir near the Egypt-Sudan border, asking for a rumored $6 million (LE 33.2 million) ransom. Ten days later, after Sudan reported it had killed six kidnappers and captured two more, the hostages were freed. Official government accounts claimed that Egyptian Army Special Forces freed the hostages by killing half the kidnappers, while the other half escaped. Once back in Egypt, however, the hostages said that they were released in the desert by the kidnappers and that no military action took place. Egyptian Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah denied that any ransom had been paid.

This story also covers the news that the Grand Hyatt had decided not to sell alcohol for religious reasons, and looks briefly at the "makeover" of the Giza plateau.



Business Times (Tamer Hafez)

This is an extract from an article about the state of the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

The tourism industry is still shaken at the mid-September kidnapping of 11 tourists and eight Egyptians. Taken by unknown assailants from Gilf Kebir in the Western Desert, the group was apparently moved first across the border into Sudan and at press time was reported to be in Libya. While the sector, worth $8.2 billion (LE 44.7 billion) in FY2006/07 according to the General Authority of Investment and Free Zones, has steadily grown despite a spate of bombings in Sinai, the kidnapping has recalled fears of 1997’s Luxor killings and the subsequent tourism drought.