Dozens gathered at the University of Ottawa Nov. 12 for the book launch of Robert Fowler’s A Season in Hell: My 130 Days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda, which tells the story of his capture while working for the United Nations.

During the talk Fowler, discussed how his work for the UN made him a major target for Al Qaeda.

Fowler and his assistant, fellow Canadian diplomat Louis Guay, were kidnapped Dec. 15, 2008 and held for nearly five months.

“I probably would not be here if I had not been in the desert with [Guay],” Fowler said.

Despite his pessimism, Guay remained positive which worked out for the both of them, he said.

“This book was in a way was like planning a future, a future after that, a future that I was not at all sure I would enjoy,” he said.

“The book helped me keep hope alive, and there for it was very important that I do it,” Fowler said.

Before A Season in Hell, Fowler said he had never written a book before and probably would never write one again, since this was a story that came right from his personal experience.

Fowler said members of Al Qaeda travelled 500 kilometres south of where they usually operate to specifically kidnap he and Guay.

“Because of the incredible amount, of very focused, very hard work by an awful lot of people in this town and people sent from this town out there, we got out,” Fowler said.

After all the time that has passed since then, though, Fowler said he wonders if it actually happened, or if it happened the way he described it in his book.

One of the reasons for the kidnapping was because Al Qaeda wanted to show the UN they could get anyone they wanted, Fowler said.

Al Qaeda is extending their reach throughout Africa and to take control of the 7,000 kilometre band across the widest part of Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, he continued.

“Their goal was to take out Western presence wherever they could find and first and foremost the UN,” he said.

One of the major issues, Fowler said, is how people only think of the effect an attack would have on the West.

“We don't think much of what it means for Africa,” he said.

Tamara Tarchichi, a fourth-year political science student at the University of Ottawa, said curiosity was the reason she attended the event.

“I checked it out on the University of Ottawa website and I figured that this was such an intriguing story,” Tarchichi said.  “Just the fact that he was captured and everyone wants to find out what happened, and the details of what happened.”