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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