French kidnap victims likely separated as search pushes on

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: A kidnapped French family of seven has likely been separated into two groups by their abductors, France said Thursday, as Nigerian security forces combed restive border areas to find them.

The members of the family — a couple, their children aged five, eight, 10 and 12 and an uncle — were abducted while on holiday in the West African nation of Cameroon on Tuesday by six armed suspected Islamists on three motorbikes.

Cameroonian officials said they were taken across the border into Nigeria, though Nigerian military spokesmen would not confirm that information.

One Nigerian security official however said on condition of anonymity that they were searching near the porous border with Cameroon in the country’s northeast.

The region is on the edge of the Sahara, where insurgents and criminal gangs have long operated.

“We are fully cooperating with Nigerian and Cameroonian authorities to find the location where our citizens are being held,” French President Francois Hollande said in Paris.

He said the priority was to “first of all identify the exact place where (they) are being held, probably in two groups”.

The family, who were based in Cameroon, were visiting the Waza National Park when they were kidnapped.

They have been identified as Tanguy Moulin-Fournier and his wife Albane, as well as their four sons, Eloi, Andeol, Mael and Clarence.

Tanguy’s brother Cyril Moulin-Fournier was with them at the time and was kidnapped as well. The three adults are all around 40 years old.

The family moved to Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, in autumn 2011 when the father got a job there overseeing the construction of a liquid natural gas plant. — AFP