French family held hostage for two months by Islamic militants in West Africa have been released, this was announced on Friday by the French and Cameroonian officials. Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, an engineer with the GDF Suez energy company based in Yaounde, was abducted with his wife, four children and his brother in February while touring a nature reserve in the far north of Cameroon, near the Nigerian border.
The Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in a campaign of terror in northern Nigeria, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for the hostages’ lives.
The Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in a campaign of terror in northern Nigeria, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for the hostages’ lives.
In a recent media appearance, the French President Francois Hollande said his country did not pay a ransom for the seven French hostages.
”We look for all possible contacts; we use the intermediaries that can be the most useful, but we do not cede on principles — which is the nonpayment by France of ransoms,” Hollande said at a news conference in Paris.
Neither African nor French officials described the conditions of the family’s release.
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