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Suspected Boko Haram militants 'release 27 hostages'

Timothy JonesOctober 11, 2014

Cameroon's presidency says 27 hostages kidnapped by suspected militants of the Islamist group Boko Haram have been released. It said 10 Chinese workers were among those freed.

https://p.dw.com/p/1DTTq
Cameroonian soldiers stand in the town of Amchide, northern Cameroon, on the border with Nigeria on June 17, 2014. Reinnier KAZE/AFP/Getty Images)
Image: AFP/Getty Images

Twenty-seven people taken hostage in two incidents earlier this year by suspected members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in Cameroon have been released, Cameroon's presidency said on Saturday.

"The 27 hostages kidnapped on May 16, 2014, at Waza and on July 27, 2014, at Kolofata were given this night to Cameroonian authorities," President Paul Biya said in a statement read on state radio, adding that all were safe.

Biya said that the released hostages included ten Chinese workers taken in the May kidnapping, and the wife of Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali, who was abducted in July along with several others.

He gave no further details.

The group Boko Haram has killed and abducted hundreds of people this year in northeastern Nigeria as part of a self-declared drive to establish an Islamic state.

The militants drew increased international attention after their kidnapping of some 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April, whose whereabouts remains unknown.

The fighters have also carried out numerous cross-border attacks into Cameroon, leading the government to deploy troops to its northern regions as part of international efforts to combat the group.

tj/msh (AFP, Reuters)