YAOUNDE/DAKAR — The militants believed to have abducted a French family of seven, including four children, in Cameroon have taken them into Nigeria, a Cameroonian minister said on Wednesday. The abduction highlights the growing risk of attacks on French nationals and interests in Africa since Paris sent forces into Mali to oust rebels occupying the country's north. Speaking on French television, Joseph Dion Ngute, a junior minister at the foreign ministry, said the kidnappers had put the hostages on motorcycles after their car broke down. “They then took another woman hostage with her car and fled into Nigeria,” he said. It was not clear what had happened to the additional female hostage. Security in the Dabanga area, 10 km from the Nigerian border, where they were taken has been reinforced and “urgent measures” to locate the family put in place, he said. A French defense ministry spokesman said, “Based on long-standing and political and socioeconomic ties between France and Cameroon, it is expected that French forces will engage in resolving this issue from within Cameroonian borders, with the support of the Cameroon government,” said Nadia Ahidjo of africapractice, an Africa-focused consulting firm. France has about 6,000 nationals in Cameroon. It issued a travel warning on Tuesday advising its citizens not to travel to the extreme north of Cameroon and those already in that region to leave as soon as possible. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday all the evidence pointed to the Nigerian militants Boko Haram. French President Francois Hollande said the kidnappings would not stop France from pursuing its operation in Mali. — Reuters
