The President of France, Francois
Hollande, on Tuesday said that a French family of seven, among them three
children, were kidnapped by Boko Haram members in northern Cameroon.
Reuters reports that Hollande told journalists during a visit to
Greece that the French tourists were abducted by members of the Islamic sect
that had been perpetrating violence in Nigeria.
“They have been taken by a terrorist
group that we know and that is in Nigeria. I see the hand of (Nigerian
militants) Boko Haram in that part of Cameroon. France is in Mali, and it will
continue until its mission is completed,” Hollande was quoted to have said.
Reuters also quoted Radio
France as having reported
that the kidnapped tourists were taken away by the terrorists on motorcycles to
Northern Nigeria.
The seven tourists were abducted at
around 7am in Dabanga about 10 kilometres from the Nigerian border
near the Waza national park and Lake Chad in the extreme north of Cameroon.
Armed men on motorcycles intercepted
the family in their car and forced them to drive to the nearby Nigerian border,
an aide to the governor of the province was quoted as saying by Reuters.
It was stated that the abduction of
the French tourists on Tuesday was the first time such an incident would place
in the predominantly Islamic Northern Cameroon.
The kidnapping of the French
nationals is coming on the heels of the abduction of seven foreign nationals by
militants at the compound of a construction company, Setraco Nigeria Limited,
in Bauchi State on Saturday evening.
The foreigners were undertaking
construction work in Jamaare and Kafin-Madaki Local Government areas of the
state when they were forcibly taken away.
A breakaway faction of Boko Haram, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi
Biladis- Sudan, on Monday
claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the foreign workers, made up of an
Italian, a Filipino, a Briton, one Greek and a Lebanese. The group said that
the action was in retaliation to acts committed against Islam in Afghanistan
and Mali by Western powers.
A statement by a leader of the group,
Abu Usamatal Ansary, reads, “Based on the transgression and atrocities done to
the religion of Allah by the European countries in many places, including Afghanistan
and Mali, by Allah’s grace, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis-sudan has the
custody of seven persons, which include Lebanese and their European
counterparts working with Setraco in Nigeria on 8th of Rabiul Thani, 1434,
equivalent of February 17, 2013.
“Any attempt or act contrary to our
condition by the European nations or by the Nigerian government will lead to
the happenings as they were in the previous attempts.”
Apart from the abduction of the
foreign nationals in Bauchi, the group also claimed responsibility for the
abduction of a Frenchman in December.
The Defence Headquarters on Tuesday
reacted to the growing abduction of Westerners in the country by asking
foreigners doing their lawful business in the country not to panic.
The Director of Defence Information,
Col. Mohammed Yerima, told one of our correspondents on the telephone that all
commanders of the Joint Military Task Force had been put on the alert to ensure
that those abducted were released.
He said that the special task force was
working in collaboration with the State Security Service and other security
agencies in the area of intelligence gathering in the quest to free the
victims.
Yerima said, “All the JTF commanders
are on the alert; they have deployed their men, and with the intelligence
gathered in collaboration with the police and the SSS, all the security
agencies are doing their best to track those people.
“All we are saying is everybody
should be conscious of security, not only the foreigners; security is not only
for the security agencies; everybody should be vigilant and report to security
agencies any suspicious persons.
“Security operatives are on the
alert, the synergy between the security agencies and the JTF is in a positive
way, the citizens also should be vigilant.
“All foreigners should go about doing
their business as we are doing our best to handle the security challenges.”
When contacted, the spokesperson for
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode, condemned the incident
but refused to make further comment on the grounds that the ministry had not
received any information on the incident.
“It is unfortunate; we are just
hearing this from you. We don’t have any detail about the incident. We cannot
comment at this time.” he told one of our correspondents.
Also, the Public Relations Officer of
the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. Ekpedeme King, said the service was trying
its best to secure the nation’s borders.
When pressed for more information on
what the agency had done in specific terms, he said he would get back to one of
our correspondents but he never did.
The NPF spokesman, Frank Mba, said he
was not aware of the development in northern Cameroon, and promised to get
briefing from his superiors to enable him to comment.
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