Germany has pledged to help track down the kidnappers of 14 European hostages freed yesterday after being held for more than five months in the Sahara by Algerian militants.
The captives, now in the care of Malian authorities, were being escorted through the desert to the capital Bamako on Tuesday where two planes waited to fly them back to Europe.
It is not clear whether any ransom was paid for the release of the nine Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch tourist.
They were among 32 hostages seized in separate incidents in February and March while travelling in southern Algeria, famous for its grave sites but notorious for smuggling and banditry.
The 14 were moved to Mali last month after Algerian commandos rescued 17 of the hostages in May. One hostage is thought to have died of heatstroke.
"It seems important to me that the kidnappers don't escape unpunished. That is why German security authorities will support the Algerian and Malian partners in everything that could help seize the kidnappers and put them on trial," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a statement on Tuesday.
Algeria said the hostages had been seized by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, who are fighting for a purist Islamist state.
The kidnappers kept their captives on the move, hiding in the Sahara's rocks and dunes in temperatures that regularly topped 45 degrees Celsius.
German television ZDF said the freed hostages were in a convoy of vehicles travelling slowly through the desert to the town of Gao, about 250 miles northeast of the capital Bamako.
It was thought they could fly out of Mali later today, arriving in Germany tomorrow.