The army has been ordered to loosen the siege of Islam radical kidnappers in the south. The kidnap victims are 15 Europeans and the government feels that letting the rebels and their captives move to another country might make getting the Europeans released. But if the rebels and their captives left the country, it would no longer be Algeria's problem, either.

Mali's border police were put on alert, and told to be on the lookout for Algerian Islamic radicals and their fifteen European captives trying to cross the border.