France and Cameroon Paid Boko Haram $3.15 million To Free French Hostages – Report

The French hostages

Members of fundamentalist sect Boko Haram were paid an equivalent of around $3.15 million by French and Cameroonian negotiators before freeing seven French hostages this month, a confidential Nigerian government report obtained by Reuters said.

France and Cameroon reiterated denials that any ransom was paid. Nigerian authorities declined to comment.

The memo does not say who paid the ransom for the family of seven, who were all released on April 19, although it says Cameroon freed some Boko Haram detainees as part of the deal.

Armed men on motorcycles snatched Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, his wife, brother and the couple’s four young children, the youngest of whom was four years old, on February 19 while they were on holiday near the Waza national park in north Cameroon, some 10 km (six miles) from the Nigerian border. They were believed to have been held in northeast Nigeria. They have since been freed.

World: Body of African found in landing gear of plane at Paris airport

A body was discovered in the landing gear of a plane belonging to Cameroon air transport company CAMAIRCO after it landed at Paris’ Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport on Monday, an airline official said. The man, about 30 years of age, probably sneaked into the plane to go which was Paris bound before it took off from Douala airport. Security forces discovered the body in the landing gear after the plane landed at the Paris airport, he said. An investigation was under way. Thousands of Africans each year attempt do-or-die voyages to Europe.

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.

Boko Haram video of kidnapped French family emerges

A video of a French family of seven kidnapped last month which also purports to show the alleged leader of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram was obtained by AFP on Thursday.

Audio clips from the video were already reported by AFP earlier this week, but the video had been unavailable.
The video shows the purported leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, as well as the seven French hostages. Shekau and the hostages are not together in the same location.
The man in the video resembles past images of the person previously identified as Shekau and his voice is similar. He wears camouflage and a rifle rests against his shoulder.
He says in Arabic in the nearly 11-minute video that the kidnapping was carried out because of the arrest of Boko Haram members or their family members in Nigeria and Cameroon.
The screen is split during part of the time he speaks, with one half showing him and the other a photograph of the family.
“God sent us the French hostages …,” he says in what is called a message to the presidents of Nigeria, Cameroon and France.
“The proof that we are holding them is that our brothers and sisters were captured in Nigeria and Cameroon … We seek no money but the release of our brothers.”
The father of the French family, which includes four children, the couple and an uncle, later reads a statement from a piece of paper.
He is surrounded by his children, his wife and his brother, all seven standing in front of what appears to be a tarpaulin.
A source close to the family on Monday confirmed that the man speaking was indeed the father, Tanguy Moulin-Fournier.
The family were on holiday in the region around Cameroon’s Waza National Park when they were kidnapped on February 19.
The father says in the video that they were kidnapped 25 days ago.
Cameroon has said the victims were taken over the border into restive northeastern Nigeria after their abduction, though their precise whereabouts are unknown.
Boko Haram is believed to include a number of factions with various interests and shifting demands.

However, criminal gangs, splinter factions and imitators also carry out violence sometimes attributed to Boko Haram.

Cameroon: Boko Haram Threatens Cameroon Attacks in New French Hostage Video

A second video of a French family held hostage by Nigeria's Boko Haram has been sent to journalists in the region where they are believed to be held.

The Islamists threaten to launch more attacks in Cameroon and demands the release of its members there and in Nigeria.The video appears to have been recorded while French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was visiting Cameroon and Nigeria."We have been held for 25 years in a desert place," says a man who identifies himself as the father, Tanguy Moulin-Fournier.Speaking in French and English, he complains of "very difficult" conditions, "especially for the children" and says that the seven hostages will not hold out much longer.

Moulin-Fournier goes on to address Cameroonian President Paul Biya, passing on a Boko Haram threat to increase kidnappings and suicide attacks in his country if he arrests more of their members but offering to release the hostages if the group's members held prisoner in Cameroon and Nigeria are freed.The video was sent to journalists in Maidiguri, the main town in the area near the border with Cameroon, Niger and Chad where Boko Haram is active.Nigerian officials said at the weekend that no ransom would be paid for the hostages.CameroonNigerian Foreign Minister Confirms No Ransom to Kidnappers of French Hostages Nigeria ruled out a ransom payment yesterday to kidnappers holding seven members of a French family, as France's foreign