French family kidnapped in northern Cameroon freed

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya has announced the release of a French family of seven kidnapped by Islamic extremists in Cameroon in February. He said they are now secured in the hands of officials.

Biya made the announcement in a statement read on national radio which said the hostages — a father, mother, four children aged 5 to 12, and an uncle — had been “handed over last night to Cameroonian authorities”.

The family of Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, his wife, four children and his brother were abducted 19 February by militants said to be Boko Haram members, on their return from a park in Northern Cameroon. They were immediately, according to reports taken across the border to Nigeria

“I have been arrested 25 days ago, with my wife, my four kids, the latest of one being four years old, and my brother who came from Europe, by an armed commando of Jamaatu Ahlisunnah Lidda’awatiwal Jihad,” he says in English after his French statement.

Jamaatu Ahlisunnah Lidda’awatiwal Jihad is what Boko Haram has said it wants to be called.