Gunmen seize SA man in Timbuktu

A SOUTH African man is being held captive in Mali after gunmen abducted him with two other foreigners in Timbuktu.

The family of the 36-year-old man said yesterday they were hesitant to reveal his identity.

"We were told to try and keep his name out of the press because it might give the abductors a chance to do something," the man's father said, adding that there had been no ransom demand yet.

"We heard that the families of the other men were contacted, but there has been absolutely no contact with us yet." He said his son had been returning home to settle down in South Africa after spending some time abroad.

"He was in banking. This was going to be his final adventure before he settled down to join me in my business," the captive's father said.

SAfm news reported that the abductors were suspected to be part of an al-Qaeda unit.

The Associated Press reported that a German man had been killed during the kidnap in a restaurant on Friday. It said the two other men seized were Swedish and Dutch.

Officials ordered a plane to evacuate foreigners from the tourist destination after the attack.

The four men's tour guide, Ali Maiga, who was present during the kidnap, told the AP the South African also held a UK passport.

Witnesses said the gunmen killed the German after he refused to climb into their truck.

The abductions come on the eve of an expected official visit by Mali's President Amadou Touré to the Netherlands next week. "In the interests of the people involved, we never comment on these cases," Dutch foreign ministry spokesman Ward Bezemer told the AP.

Two French citizens were grabbed in the middle of the night from their hotel in the Mali town of Hombori on Thursday.