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Marc Preel / AFP - Getty Images
The French family, including four children, kidnapped in Cameroon on Tuesday were visiting Waza National Park, a source at the nature preserve said.
French special forces arrived in northern Cameroon on Wednesday to try to help locate a French family of seven, including four children, who were kidnapped by people thought to be Islamist militants and taken into Nigeria, officials in Cameroon said.
The abduction highlights the growing risk of attacks on French nationals and interests in Africa since Paris sent forces into Mali to oust Islamist rebels occupying the country's north.
Ian Langsdon / EPA
French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed the abduction in Cameroon of the family of seven at a Tuesday news conference.
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. "Our forces and the Nigerian forces were alerted, but before they reacted the kidnappers had vanished."
It was not clear what had happened to the additional female hostage.
Security in the Dabanga area, six miles from the Nigerian border, where they were taken has been reinforced and "urgent measures" to locate the family have been put in place, he said.
It is the first case of foreigners being seized in the mostly Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony. But the region -- like others in West and North Africa with typically porous borders -- is considered to be within the operational sphere of Nigerian Islamist militant groups Boko Haram and Ansaru.
The father of the family, which included four children ages 5 to 12, worked for utility firm GDF Suez. French television reported that the father was from a family of winemakers in the Burgundy region.
Nigerian army spokesman Col. Sagir Musa said the armed forces were on alert, "ready to apprehend any criminal elements or terrorists that come into our areas."
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If the French forces live up to their standards, five of the kidnap victims will survive the rescue attempt.
"The abduction highlights the growing risk of attacks on French nationals and interests in Africa since Paris sent forces into Mali to oust Islamist rebels occupying the country's north."
When it comes to Islamists, we should all join hands and support those battling them.
Today it is French, tomorrow it is US, British or someone else.
Hollande and French politicians, British rulers, US politicians and many European politicians need to wake up; take a time out and correct the course of actions!
Till now they have been responsible for keeping those inventing the Islamists' problem alive and kicking; and even now they are attacking the problem from the tail end!
They need to understand that the foutainheads of Islamic extremism on rampage all over the world are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, whom they have been considering as their strategic allies!
As they are French, it may be possible to sniff them out, no dogs needed !
And we think Detroit is bad? Not even close!
I take it that you have not been to Detroit lately...................
As a resident of the suburbs of Detroit, I can tell you I have not been into Detroit much either. That city is a @!$%# hole and most of us avoid it.
What about Dearborn?
People had seen how followers of religion of "love" and "peace" act.
I hope the four kids - who undoubtedly had no choice but to be there - will be returned safely, hopefully with their careless idiot parents.
And in what way was this female who was abducted related to this family? The article did not say. It said it was a family of 7 with four children (4 + 2 = 6; not 7). So either these children had three parents or that female was a relative of some sort.
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Wishing safety to this family. Traveling out of your home country is just NOT a safe thing to do right now. Home countries aren't necessaily safe anyway, but traveling to other countries is dangerous. Hoping for a successful rescue of all involved. Safety for the rescuers as well!
Follow the french fries and french Toast. Then listen for a French kiss
The French SF will do a far better job than the Algerian military.
When you run around in someone's neighborhood making a point of pissing them off, you had better first evacuate your civilians.
The french must think they are in charge over there, well I guess not . Seems that the animals have taken over the zoo and the french will get devoured. Run like hell if you are a civilized person living there.
If one european country has to suffer the curse of islam, i am glad that it is france. it seems that france had been one of the loudest critics of the US over the decades, especially when it came to US involvement in the middle east.
It is the first case of foreigners being seized in the mostly Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony. Not anymore France and if your people are stupid enough to travel in a "mostly Muslim area" they deserve what they get. Sorry that the kids have such stupid parents with a sense of entitlement and poor judgment as they have demonstrated.
In stupidity, I blame the politicians.
As far as parents are concerned, sometimes people don't have much idea on what is going on in a fast changing world.
French, British, German and many US politicians start their dances the moment oil rich Sunni rulers, oil companies and their lobbyists start their singing!
Iraqi wars are the best example.
Libya is another example.
In Syria they started the dances and stopped them for a while giving a break.
On sanctions on Iranian oil and manipulating oil prices from $40 in 2009 to more than current $110, they are all one!
Just like Saddam, Iran is about to get most dangerous nukes.
At least Jewish extremist lobbyists and oil rich Sunni rulers, oil companies and their lobbyists are telling them.
No one knows about Paki nukes or Iran can get them from Pakis.
Can there be more stupid acts repeated over and over and make oil rich Sunni rulers richer and more dangerous?
Under such conditions, it is better to avoid travels to Muslim majority tourist spots.
I live in this 'mostly Muslim area' as an expat and haven't had a moment when I've felt unsafe and am confident that my friends (many of which are Muslim) take sincere interest in my safety and well being. My suggestion would be to not generalize them all as being remotely in the same stratosphere as those doing the kidnapping.
JaaackDash: A few bad people are enough to spoil a place.
Here some of the Muslims had the worst track record of being most violent and intolerant.
I agree that many Muslims are good people. However, when the name of Islam props up, these "good people" vanish leaving the field open to haters and killers.
That is what is going on in Mali, Cameroon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria and other places.
EVERYONE in Africa must be kidnapped. who would want to be in such a horrible dark backward land. Leave it to the insects and animals and natives.
"Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony. But the region -- like others in West and North Africa with typically porous borders -- is considered to be within the operational sphere of Nigerian Islamist militant groups Boko Haram and Ansaru."
Add one more to the list of nations made dangerous by Sunni Islamists.
Followers of Islamic cult, especially House of Saud inspired Sunni Islamic radicals and militants (al-Qaida, Salaffi, Wahhabi, MB, Taliban and other label ones), are fast marching backwards to their seventh century desert tribal days.
They are indulging in rapings, lootings, killings and genocides of non-Muslims (Darfur, S. Sudan, Nigeria and spreading like wild fire in many regions and Muslims (Libya, Mali, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places).
Pakis and Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and other Sunni Arab League nations are responsible for 80 percent of world problems including economic ones.
Examine the devastations with Iraqi wars and now sanctions on Iranian oil and the resultant oil price manipulations.
Go for the root causes of problems and not the tail!