A recent video requesting al Qaeda's North African wing to share information on six French hostages has come under severe criticism from some of the captives' families as they were kept aloof from any such move. While this issue is between the captivators and the French Government, it has been claimed that brother of one of the six French hostages released the video, in which he appealed the captivators to come out and sort the matter with the government.

However, this video has left families of the rest of the hostages in utter disbelief as they were not informed about this appeal and further they expressed that it's the French government that holds the rights to deal with the matter.

"Considering the French support of a military intervention in Mali [to oust an Islamist takeover of the region] the hostages are obviously being used as human shields. The president has it in his power to act and to remedy this situation", said Pascal Lupart, who stands for a support group for the families of Serge Lazarevic and Philippe Verdon, who were held in 2011.

It has to be noted that the hostages were kidnapped by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Among the hostages, four were working for French nuclear energy giant Areva in September 2010 in Niger and other two were held in November 2011 in north-eastern Mali.