kidnapped family freed by Boko Haram militants

A French couple along with their four children has been released after being kidnapped in Cameroon by Boko Haram militants. The parents and children, aged 12 to five, are doing well. On February 19, 2013, armed men on motorcycles seized the family near Nigeria’s border in Cameroon’s Waza National Park. The children’s uncle was also with them when they were taken hostage.

Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, the father, worked for GDF Suez, a French utility firm. The family has thanked the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, for the efforts to have them released. The family was taken to the Yaounde embassy after the French ambassador met them on the tarmac.

Hollande’s government finds the hostage release to be good news, they are struggling to reduce the rate of unemployment and the budget minister had to resign as a result of a scandal involving tax fraud. The biggest threat to the security of Nigeria is the Islamist militants; these include Boko Haram.

Officials are maintaining that there was no ransom paid for the release of the family. The Moulin-Fournier family is expected to return home to France over the weekend. There are eight more French citizens being held as Islamic separatists and French troops continue fighting in Mali.

Read more at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/19/177953489/french-family-set-free-after-cameroon-kidnapping

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