abstract:Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr Mountains. It is 200 km south by road from the border with Algeria.
The French hostages, as well as aTogolese and a Madagascar national werekidnapped on Sept.16 while theyweresleeping in theirvillasintheuranium mining town ofArlit.
In Agadez, a regional capital to the southeast of Arlit, a truck carrying armed assailants and explosives detonated in front of the army barracks, Labo said.