Cairo, December 25. Talks are still underway but have not yet been successful between religious and tribal leaders in the northern Sinai and the migrant traffickers who have been holding at least 300 Eritreans - and over a hundred other Africans - hostage for weeks and who are demanding that ransom money be paid. This was reported to ANSA by local sources, who said that the hostage takers continue to demand sums of money from the hostages' families, for some of whom several thousands of dollars in individual ransom have already been paid.

The talks, which the government in Cairo urged clan chiefs to engage in - who it seems are not for the moment engaging directly in the matter - are allegedly at a standstill after some of the hostages were freed over the past few weeks and then arrested by Egyptian police for the crime of illegal immigration.

According to not-yet-confirmed figures cited by an Egyptian source, there are 1,500 Africans being held by the marauders, to whom they had already been paid to cross the Sinai peninsula and reach Israel, a country in which they had planned to settle to find work. The sources also report that among the migrants being held by the marauders are Nigerians, Sudanese and Ethiopians.