Two European hostages, Serge Lazarevic of France and Sjaak Rijke of the Netherlands, have appeared  in a video put on line by an internet site Linked to Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, in which they pleaded to their governments for help in securing their release.

Lazarevic, the only French person held hostage in the world, said on the video that his life was "in danger" and appealing to President Francois Hollande to "do everything for his liberation."

The video included a second hostage, Dutch citizen Rijke, kidnapped in Timbuktu in November 2011 during a tour in the Sahara.

He said he had spent 1,000 days in detention and was having physical and emotional difficulty dealing with the captivity.

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