An 83-year-old entrepreneur kidnapped on March 23 has been released unharmed by Islamist fighters in Ait Koufi in the Kabylie region after residents refused to pay his ransom and called a general strike against the kidnappers. Traditionally an Islamist stronghold, residents have staged an unprecedented condemnation of the Islamist activities in an effort to get the elderly man’s captors to release him unharmed.
