Seven members of a French family abducted in Cameroon have been freed, officials in both countries (France and Cameroon) have said.

Cameroon’s Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary told the BBC they were in “good condition and unharmed”.

The family, including four children, were abducted in February by gunmen on motorbikes after a visit to Waza National Park in northern Cameroon.

President Francois Hollande said no ransom had been paid by France to secure the family’s freedom, though secret talks had been taking place for the past few weeks.

“France has not changed its position, which is not to pay ransoms,” Reuters news agency quotes him as saying at a news conference in Paris.

“I spoke to the father this morning… He told me how happy and relieved he was.”

The release of the hostages was announced on national radio in Cameroon on Friday morning.

“They are all alive and well,’’ Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, secretary-general of Cameroon’s presidency, said in a statement carried by state radio.

He said the family had been handed over to Cameroon authorities late on Thursday.

The family, which was on holiday, was abducted in February by men on motorcycles, armed with Kalashnikovs in Dabanga about 10 km from the Nigerian border near the Waza national park.

Gunmen claiming to be from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram later released videos of the family, threatening to kill them if authorities in Nigeria and Cameroon did not release Muslim militants held there.

The parents of the family, which included two boys and two girls as well as another relative, work for French utility firm GDF Suez.
Source: http://infonigeria24.com/kidnapped-french-family-regain-freedom/