Kidnappings Increase as Terror Spreads in Africa

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Unfortunately, European visitors getting kidnapped in Africa isn't a new phenomenon.

But the recent brazen kidnapping Friday and subsequent murder of two Frenchmen in Niger's capital of Niamey has raised concerns among authorities who now are wondering whether the world of safe places is shrinking.

The men were dragged out of an open-air restaurant by gunmen believed to be with al-Qaeda's North African sector.

The kidnappings took place in an area believed to have been safe for foreign visitors. Turns out it isn't. And it shows that the bad guys are becoming increasingly free to to do their mess where ever they want, according to Jeremy Keenan, a researcher at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

Like a disease, the number of al-Qaeda fighters is believed to be spreading.

More than 1,000 French live in Niger as ex-patriots, and Niamey was once a safe zone for Europeans. But those days appear to be gone, said Keenan.

French aid workers Antoine de Leocour and Vincent Delory, both 25, were eating at a popular restaurant, Le Toulousain (pictured above), when four armed men wearing turbans busted in and dragged the men out.

The men were killed after a gun battle between the kidnappers and Niger police and French troops.

How the French and other Western nations will combat this new wave of violence is anyone's guess. The lack of a stable government in areas of north and central Africa, combined with poverty and religious extremism, are making once-safe areas dangerous and decent people very fearful.

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