Seven people, five of them French nationals, have been kidnapped in northern Niger, dpa quoted a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry as saying Thursday. Bernard Valero told journalists in Paris that the seven, who were abducted overnight Wednesday to Thursday, are employees of two French-owned companies - engineering firm Satom and the nuclear energy provider Areva. Areva identified two of people abducted as an employee of the company and his wife. Areva employs some 2,000 people, about 50 of them French, in and around two uranium mines it exploits. The kidnapping took place near these mines, in the region of Arlit. The Foreign Ministry said the other two kidnap victims were citizens of Togo and Madagascar. BFM television reported that the victims had all been kidnapped from their homes, which are located in supposedly well-guarded areas. The station also reported that the Niger government said the kidnapping was carried out by a group of armed men who spoke primarily Arabic, but also Tamachek, a language used by members of the Tuareg tribe living in the region. Areva and Satom's parent company, Vinci, said in a joint statement that they were reinforcing security measures for their employees in the area.
