Failed rescue: German hostage killed in Kano

 Edgar Fritz Raupauch

ABDUCTORS of a German engineer on Thursday, in Kano, shot and killed the expatriate during a rescue mission spearheaded by men of the Joint Task Force on anti-terrorism.

The murdered German, Edgar Fritz Raupach, had been seized since January 26 along the Zaria Road, Kano, by gunmen suspected to be members of a terrorist group.

In March, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had said it was holding the German and that it would exchange him for Filiz Gelowicz, fundamentalist serving time in Germany.

Speaking alternately in German and English, Raupach in the video said, “I beg any government to save my life. My life is in your hands now, I beg you, or these people will kill me.”

The rescue team was said to have stormed the hideout of the kidnappers located in an area opposite the Bayero University, on Gwarzo Road, Kano around 6.30am but were resisted by the abductors who were said to be heavily armed.