French scientists are up in arms about the freeze their universities and research organizations have placed on field work in Mauritania, Mali, and Niger in response to the deteriorating security situation in those countries. An online petition launched recently asks the groups to relax the measure, which the petitioners say is an overreaction.
In recent years, French citizens in the Sahel have increasingly become targets of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the terrorist group suspected to be responsible for last week's bomb attack on a café in Marrakesh. AQIM, which has demanded the French withdrawal from Afghanistan, is holding four French nationals hostage after kidnapping them in northern Niger in September; two other Frenchmen were abducted from a restaurant in the usually tranquil capital of Niger on 7 January and killed the next day during a botched rescue operation across the border in Mali. In response to travel warnings from the French ministry of foreign affairs, many universities and research agencies have placed Mauritania, Mali, and Niger off-limits for their scientists.
