French Cleric Allegedly Kidnapped In Cameroon By Boko Haram

A French priest has been kidnapped in northern Cameroon, the French Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, just months after the violent Islamist sect, Boko Haram, captured a French family in the same region.

The ministry said checks were under way to establish the circumstances and the identity of the kidnappers.

Georges Vandenbeusch was seized in the night of Wednesday to Thursday in the region of Koza, about 30 kilometres from the Nigerian border, the ministry said.

Vandenbeusch had been a priest in the Paris suburb of Sceaux until he left for Cameroon in 2011, the ministry said, adding that he had decided to stay in the region, which France considers to be high risk for kidnappings even though he was aware of the risks involved.

Boko Haram kidnapped a French family of seven on holiday in northern Cameroon in February and released them in April.

French President Francois Hollande denied at the time that a ransom was paid.

But a confidential Nigerian government report, obtained by Reuters, said Boko Haram was paid an equivalent of around $3.15m by French and Cameroonian negotiators to free them.