FRANCE RULES OUT NEGOTIATION WITH BOKO HARAM 10 KILLED IN BORNO, YOBE

Foreign Minister of France, Jean-Yves le Drian, Tuesday dismissed the demand by the Boko Haram sect that unless arrested Islamic militias were released, it would kill the kidnapped French tourists who were captured at a park in northern Cameroun last week. Drian told French radio his government would not negotiate for the release of the French  tourists. His remarks came after a shocking video surfaced Monday on YouTube, showing masked gunmen in camouflage standing over their captives: four boys, their parents and the boys’ uncle.

And barely 48 hours after a faction of Boko Haram warned against continued violence in the country, there was yet another bloody attack yesterday with the killing of ten persons in Borno and Yobe States.

7 KIDNAPPED FRENCH HOSTAGES APPEAR IN BOKO HARAM VIDEO

A video posted online yesterday apparently showed seven French hostages kidnapped from northern Cameroon, with a masked militant claiming the radical Islamic group Boko Haram from neighbouring Nigeria held them.

The video, posted to YouTube and mentioned on a jihadist website, shows one of two French men reading a statement, with a woman in between them. Four children sit on the ground near them, flanked by two masked militants wearing camouflage uniforms and holding rifles.

CAMEROON CLAIMS KIDNAPPED FRENCH HOSTAGES NOW IN NIGERIA

The Islamist militants believed to have abducted a French family of seven, including four children, in Cameroon on Tuesday, have taken them into Nigeria, Cameroon's foreign ministry claimed.

The abduction highlights the growing risk of attacks on French nationals and interests in Africa since Paris sent forces into Mali last month to help oust Islamist rebels occupying the country's north.

“The kidnappers have crossed the Nigerian border with their hostages,’’ said junior minister Joseph Dion Ngute in a statement late on Tuesday.

BOKO HARAM KIDNAPPED FRENCH NATIONALS IN CAMEROUN, SAYS HOLLANDE

French President Fancois Hollande yesterday accused Nigerian terrorists of kidnapping French nationals in Cameroun.

Seven French nationals, including three children, were abducted by armed men on motorbikes from a Camroun border town and taken towards Nigeria.

They where taken from Dadanga village – less than 10 kilometres from the Nigeria border.

The victims were likely returning from a trip to Cameroun’s Waza National Park.

The park is about 240 kilometres to the east of Maiduguri, a stronghold of the extremist group Boko Haram.

“They have been taken by a terrorist group that we know and that is in Nigeria,” Hollande told reporters during a visit to Greece.

FRANCE TELLS NATIONALS TO LEAVE NORTHERN NIGERIA

France has asked its citizens to leave northern Nigeria and areas around the capital Abuja after threats due to its military intervention in Mali, a diplomatic source said on Monday.
Islamist militants have vowed to target French interests following its two-week-old military offensive in Mali against militants allied to al Qaeda.
The diplomatic source said the threat of kidnappings coupled with Nigeria’s support for France’s action in Mali had raised the risks for French nationals.