Philippine Islamist kidnappers demand US$13 million ransom by June 13 or western hostage will die
Last month Abu Sayyaf militants beheaded John Ridsdel, another Canadian kidnapped in the same raid as two foreigners in new video
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Islamist extremists in the Philippines who last month beheaded a Canadian man say they will kill another Western hostage if a multi-million dollar ransom is not paid within four weeks.
A video released by Abu Sayyaf - leaders have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group - shows Canadian Robert Hall and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad wearing orange shirts in a jungle setting, surrounded by hooded, armed men.
“I appeal to my government and the Philippine government, as I have appealed before, for help,” says Hall in the new video.
The men say their captors have threatened to kill at least one of them if no payment is received by June 13.
A caption on the video, carried by the terror-monitoring SITE Intelligence Group, says Abu Sayyaf is demanding 600 million pesos (US$12.8 million).
The Philippine army found a severed head a remote island just five hours after the expiry of the ransom deadline set by the militants.
Trudeau had declined to respond when asked whether the Canadian government had tried to negotiate with the captors or pay a ransom, or whether it was trying to secure the release of Hall.
Ridsdel, Hall, Sekkingstad, and Hall’s Filipina girlfriend were abducted in 2015 from a resort on Samal island, hundreds of kilometres from Abu Sayyaf’s traditional strongholds.
The group has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history.
“To the whole Moros in the Philippines, I extend my hand in peace,” Duterte said.
Abu Sayyaf was not party to that agreement, and Duterte has called for the group to lay down its arms.
“We don’t go to war with our own people but at one time, I would ask them to release the hostages,” Duterte told reporters in Davao City early Monday, referring to Abu Sayyaf.
The abductions in Mindanao must stop because it’s hurting the country’s image and “there has to be a time when they have to surrender and account for what they did,” he said.
Although its leaders have pledged fealty to the Islamic State group, analysts say they are more focused on lucrative kidnappings-for-ransom than on setting up a caliphate.
The group is believed to have just a few hundred militants but has withstood repeated US-backed military offensives, surviving by using the mountainous, jungle terrain of the southern islands to its advantage.
The Abu Sayyaf are also believed to be holding four Malaysians, a Dutch bird-watcher and four Filipinos, seized in separate raids.
Earlier this month, the group released 10 Indonesian hostages who were crew of a Taiwanese-owned tugboat.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
