A recently released video featuring seven male hostages, four from France, being held captive by Al Qaeda was deemed credible by the French Foreign Ministry, according to Bloomberg.
"At first view, this video appears credible and constitutes a new proof the four French taken in Arlit on Sept. 16, 2010 are alive," said French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Philippe Lalliot.
In the video, French citizen Daniel Larribe, 61, said "I am in good health but threatened with death.''
Al Qaeda claims the men are healthy but will be killed if their governments don't negotiate for their release. The group of hostages are made up of four Frenchmen, one Dutchman, one Swede, and one South African.
Larribe's wife, Francoise, was kidnapped by Al Qaeda as well but was released in 2011.
Pierre Legrand, Thierry Dol, and Marc Feret were named as the four other hostages from France. During the kidnapping of Dutch hostage Sjaak Rijke, Swedish hostage Johan Gustafsson, and South African hostage Stephen Malcolm, a fourth man from Germany was killed.
"Of course we react positively every time we see that they are alive and in relatively good health," said Legrand's grandfather Rene Robert.
The four men from France were taken by Al Qaeda in the Maghreb region of Africa, near a uranium mine they worked at in Mali. The rest of the men were captured in Timbuktu on Nov. 25, 2011.
The video was recorded on Jun. 27 of this year, according to reports by Agence Nouakchott d'Information, and is the first video of them since September 2012.
In July, French President Francois Hollande said that France was "doing everything" in their power to release the hostages but did not discuss the situation further with fear of worsening "a situation which is bad enough."
