FILE: File footage of Waza National Park in the far north of Cameroon where this week a French family of seven were kidnapped by Nigerian militants and street views of Nigeria's volatile north east town of Maiduguri close to Cameroon's border
Record ID:
235983
FILE: File footage of Waza National Park in the far north of Cameroon where this week a French family of seven were kidnapped by Nigerian militants and street views of Nigeria's volatile north east town of Maiduguri close to Cameroon's border
- Title: FILE: File footage of Waza National Park in the far north of Cameroon where this week a French family of seven were kidnapped by Nigerian militants and street views of Nigeria's volatile north east town of Maiduguri close to Cameroon's border
- Date: 20th February 2013
- Summary: MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA (FEBRUARY 20, 2013) (REUTERS) STREET SCENES VARIOUS OF CARS MOVING ON A ROAD PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING CLOSE TO MARKET VARIOUS OF VEHICLES ON STREET
- Embargoed: 7th March 2013 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria, Cameroon
- City:
- Country: Cameroon Nigeria
- Topics: Conflict,Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA7YAVR4DHVPGRPH998IS0H7U28
- Story Text: French special forces have arrived in northern Cameroon to help locate a French family who were kidnapped and moved to Nigeria, a local governor said on Wednesday (February 20).
The abduction of three adults and four children highlights the risk to French nationals and interests in Africa since Paris sent forces to Mali to oust Islamist rebels.
Men on motorcycles, armed with Kalashnikovs, intercepted the family in their car at 0700 GMT on Tuesday (February 19) and forced them to drive to the nearby Nigerian border, an aide to the governor of the province told Reuters. The four-wheel-drive vehicle was later found abandoned.
The seven French nationals were abducted in Dabanga about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Nigerian border near the Waza national park, where they had spent the night in the extreme north of Cameroon, an area where Westerners often go for holidays.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday evidence pointed to Nigerian Islamists Boko Haram, but there did not appear to be a direct link to France's intervention in Mali.
The volatile north east Nigerian town of Maiduguri is close to Cameroon's Waza National Park and is considered to be a Boko Haram stronghold.
It was the first case of foreigners being seized in the mostly Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony. But the region - like others in West and North Africa with typically porous borders - is considered within the operational sphere of Boko Haram and fellow Nigerian Islamist militants Ansaru.
Islamist radicals in northern Nigeria now pose the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil-producing state. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None