French hostages abducted in Cameroon freed
2013-02-21 13:16
Paris - Seven French nationals taken hostage in northern
Cameroon earlier this week have been freed, French media reports said on Thursday,
citing Cameroonian military sources.
The three adults and four children were found safe and sound
in a house in the Nigerian town of Dikwa after being "abandoned" by
their captors and were now in the hands of Nigerian authorities, BFM television
reported.
A French junior government minister rushed to announce the
news in parliament but was immediately forced to retracted, saying there was
"no official confirmation" of the hostages' release. A French foreign
ministry spokesman told dpa the ministry was still verifying the report.
Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, an expatriate employee of GDF Suez
energy company, his wife, four children and a second male adult were abducted on Tuesday by gunmen as they were leaving a wildlife park in the far north of the
country, close to the Nigerian border.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which
comes in the sixth week of France's military intervention against Islamist
militants in nearby Mali.
The French government said it suspected the Nigerian
Islamist militia Boko Haram.
- SAPA
