Paris - Following the release of Franco-Serbian Serge Lazarevic, held captive in north Africa since 24 November 2011, three European hostages remain in the sub-Saharan region.
A Swede, a Dutchman and a Briton who also holds a South African passport were kidnapped one day later in Timbuktu, northern Mali.
A fourth man from Germany was killed trying to resist his captors.
All of the kidnappings were claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which released two photos to back up their claim.
On 21 August 2012, the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera broadcast a video that identified the hostages as Stephen Malcolm from Britain and South Africa, Swede Johan Gustafson, and Sjaak Rijke from The Netherlands.
A Mauritanian press agency said on 16 September 2013, that it too had a video of the three Europeans.
On 17 November 2014, AQIM released more video footage of Lazarevic, along with a bearded man identified as Rijke.
Rijke referred to a recording made on 26 September to mark his 1 000th day of detention, and spoke in English.
