Japan’s Algeria toll hits 10 as survivors head home

Japan’s government on Thursday confirmed a tenth victim of the Algerian hostage crisis, the highest death toll of any nation, as friends and colleagues of those who perished paid tribute at a makeshift altar.

The announcement came as the seven Japanese men who survived after Islamist gunmen laid siege to the desert gas plant headed home aboard a government plane that was also carrying the bodies of nine victims.

“We have now identified the final body,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters. “We have confirmed the death of a total ten people.”

“The government for its part wishes to express its heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families,” said Suga.

Japan’s body count of 10 is the highest of any nation whose citizens were caught up in the crisis in the Sahara and an unusual taste of Jihadist anger for a country that has remained far from US-led wars in the Muslim world.

At the headquarters of plant-builder JGC Corporation, which employed – directly or indirectly – all Japanese at the complex, mourners dressed in black solemnly bowed to a Buddhist cenotaph, urging departed souls to find peace.

An elegantly handwritten prayer for those who lost their lives was inscribed on the wooden tablet, around which lay bouquets of white flowers.