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21 Missing Tourists Sought in Sahara

Friday, April 4, 2003
(8:04 AM ET)
By Hassane Meftahi
Associated Press Writer

Islamic extremists waging an insurgency in Algeria for more than a decade have not carried out attacks in the vast desert region. Still, there has been speculation that insurgents may be behind the disappearances.

ALGIERS, Algeria -- AP
Searchers using camels and helicopters equipped with heat-seeking sensors have scoured the Sahara Desert for 21 tourists, mostly Germans, who vanished in Algeria over the past six weeks.

But the search effort has, so far, been in vain, and authorities cannot even say whether smugglers, Islamic insurgents or potentially devastating desert problems like empty gas tanks are to blame.

Five groups of tourists -- 16 Germans, four Swiss and a Dutch national -- have disappeared in Algeria since the end of February.

Most went missing near desert towns such as Illizi, near the Libyan frontier, and Tamanrasset, the main town in southern Algeria, some 1,240 miles from the capital.

"Authorities and the population are searching river beds, canyons and dunes, in vehicles and on the backs of camels" to try to find the tourists, said a statement issued Thursday by an association of travel agencies, known as UNATA.
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2003 © The Associated Press

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