‘Abductors may be seeking cash’

France says won’t negotiate

LAGOS, Feb 26, (Agencies): Suspected Nigerian Islamists have demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for the freedom of a kidnapped French family, but analysts said Tuesday their true aim may be to collect a ransom payment.

The kidnappers who appeared with the hostages in a YouTube video on Monday claimed to be members of Boko Haram, an extremist group that has killed hundreds in northern Nigeria since 2009.

After the attack that targeted a family of seven, including four children, on holiday at a nature park in Cameroon near the Nigerian border, France quickly declared that Boko Haram was to blame. While the video contained some demands previously listed by the Nigerian extremists, it marked a significant departure for Boko Haram, which had never before claimed the kidnapping of Western hostages.

Experts therefore cautioned against taking the video at face value, saying the call on Cameroon and Nigeria to release Islamist “brothers” and women linked to the group may have masked an unspoken financial motive.

“Boko Haram doesn’t talk about money (publicly), but they need money,” said Kunle Amuwo, a Nigeria analyst with the International Crisis Group. “I believe that once negotiations

start, they will (issue) a ransom” demand, he said.

However, France’s defence minister on Tuesday ruled out talks with the abductors, saying “we do not negotiate on these terms, with these groups.”

“What we do is use all possible means to ensure the release of hostages, be they these or others,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said. “But we do not play this bidding game because that is terrorism.”

Marc-Antoine de Montclos of the Paris-based Institute for Research and Development, said the Islamists have recently been suspected of raiding banks and kidnapping businessmen in their home base of northeastern Nigeria to fund their insurgency.

The abductions in Cameroon, he added, may have been an extension of that strategy, perhaps carried out by a local gang tied to the main branch of the radical sect.

“Boko Haram has been increasingly compelled to finance themselves locally through crime and we know very well that today French nationals sell better (than others) on the ransom market,” Montclos said.