Niger town fears for abducted US aid worker ‘Jeff’

‘Devastating shock that the whole city cried’

ABALAK, Niger, Oct 23, (AFP): For people living in the small city of Abalak in central Niger, the abduction of a longtime US aid worker over a week ago has left them angry and anxious.

Jeffery Woodke was no stranger here.

“We are furious and shocked by this kidnapping,” said Ibrahim Adamou, a 16-year-old student, as he and neighbours of Woodke recalled the evening of October 14 when the American was seized at gunpoint from his home.

“Like every night, he was drinking tea” in the courtyard of his house, along with his guards, when “two armed men in turbans” stormed in and grabbed him, killing his bodyguard and a member of the national guard.

Woodke, reportedly in his 50s, “struggled” to break free from his captors. “We cried and shouted for help but the gunmen just threw him into their vehicle,” said Aicha, one of the neighbours.

A local official said they drove off “with no headlights on” taking the road that leads to Mali, where investigators have since tracked the kidnappers and believe Woodke is being held by the Al-Qaeda linked group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao). A shopkeeper Mohamed said when he thought of Woodke, “I hear his laughter in my head”.

The American had become one of them after running the aid group JEMET there since 1992, helping the local Tuareg community. He speaks DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 23, (Agencies): Two police officers were killed and 19 people were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a passing police vehicle in the eastern Turkish province of Bingol on Sunday, security sources said.

The bomb, planted by militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was detonated near the district governor’s office, the security sources said. Five police officers were among the injured, they said.

Hours before the bombing, PKK militants had attempted an attack overnight on the district governor’s home, using long-range rifles and rocket launchers, Dogan news agency reported.

Two militants made it to the door of the house, but fled when police returned fire, it said.

Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast has been hit by waves of violence since

their language Tamasheq fluently as well as Fula and Arabic. Jeff, as they call him, could be seen around town in a turban, leather sandals and a big boubou — a flowing African tunic.

“He was with us through all the hardest times”, said Abalak’s mayor Ahmed Dilou — the times of a food crisis, the droughts, the floods. the collapse of a 2-1/2-year ceasefire between the state and the PKK last year.

Meanwhile, Turkey has arrested more than 35,000 people over alleged links to the group run by the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the failed July coup, local media reported Sunday.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the suspects had been placed under arrest since the attempted putsch that fell apart within hours, quoted by NTV broadcaster.

Another 3,907 suspects were still being sought while nearly 26,000 people had been released into “judicial control”, he said.

Some 82,000 individuals had been investigated in total since the coup bid, he told the audience on Saturday at a ruling Justice and Development Party conference in Afyonkarahisar, western Turkey.

The Friday night of Jeff’s abduction “was such a devastating shock that the whole city cried”, he said.

But apparently Woodke was not concerned about living in this unstable Tahoua region of Niger, close to the borders of Mali and Algeria. Western embassies have issued strong warnings to their nationals against venturing there.