President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed yesterday that France would avenge the murder of a 78-year-old French aid worker who was kidnapped and killed in the Sahara desert by al-Qaeda’s North African wing.

“I condemn this barbarous act, this odious act which has put an end to the life of an innocent man who was there to help the local population,” he said in a terse televised address.

Mr Sarkozy spoke after al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) declared it had killed the hostage, Michel Germaneau, in revenge after French and Mauritanian soldiers stormed one of the group’s camps in Mali and killed six militants.

“Dear compatriots, this crime committed against Michel Germaneau will not go unpunished,” Mr Sarkozy said, warning French nationals to avoid the arid Sahel region running through Mauritania, Mali, Niger and southern Algeria.

“We demand instantly of our countrymen that they abandon absolutely all travel in the Sahel zone,” he said, adding that the same AQIM cell had previously killed a British hostage and was planning attacks.

“Far from weakening our determination, this death has reinforced it.”

In Mali, a local elected official said that Mr Germaneau had been beheaded after the raid in the presence of Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, the leader of the AQIM cell that has been blamed for killing the Briton last year.

“He was still alive when the raid took place, but hidden in a mountainous region in Kidal, near the Algerian border,” the local official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The area is an impreg-nable fortress, where Islamists have planted mines and constructed bomb shelters,” he said.

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