The French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, has confirmed that a French hostage, captured by a North African militant group three months ago, has been killed by his captors in Mali. Mr Sarkozy described the killing of Michel Germaneau, an elderly aid worker, as barbaric and hateful act, which had made a victim of an innocent man. He said the crime carried out against Michel Germaneau would not go unpunished. The leader of Al-Qaeda's offshoot in North Africa said in a message broadcast on Sunday that the group had killed the French engineer in retaliation for a raid on one of their camps last week, in which Mauritanian forces had been aided by the French.