ALGIERS, Apr 15, 2010 (AFP) - People in the small Algerian town of Boghni on Thursday began a strike in hopes of winning the release of an octogenarian businessman who was kidnapped for a ransom on March 22, residents said.
"All the local administrations are closed, but the strike is being only partly followed by traders," one resident of the town of some 20,000 people told AFP, reached by telephone.
The elderly victim was kidnapped from his home in Ait Koufi, near Boghni, by armed men who have issued a ransom demand of 20 million dinars (202,000 euros, 274,000 dollars).
A first strike to demand the victim's release was held on March 30 and gathered several thousand people from nearby villages in the northeastern Kabylie region of the north African country.
In October 2009, residents of Issennajen, also in Kabylie, won the release of a town tradesman held by armed Islamic extremists. The victim was freed three days after being kidnapped and no ransom was paid.
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Copyright AFP 2010.
