A German man kidnapped six months ago by Boko Haram
insurgents in Nigeria has been rescued by the Cameroonian forces,
Cameroon presidency said in a statement.
According to the statement made public on Wednesday, “a special operation led by Cameroonian armed forces along with security services of friendly nations succeeded onTuesday night in freeing Nitsch Eberhard Robert, a German citizen abducted in Nigeria in July 2014 by the Boko Haram sect”.
Confirming the development. a spokesman for the German foreign ministry informed that Robert was now in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.
However, no further details were immediately available about the hostage or the raid itself, including where it took place.
The release was announced a day after Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau mocked African leaders who were meeting in Niger to try to forge a united front against the Islamists.
“African kings… I challenge you to attack me now. I am ready,” Shekau had said in the video.
Meanwhile, as news of the German’s rescue emerged, the African Union announced it has asked the Security Council to approve a mandate for a regional force and a fund to help finance it.
“Boko Haram is a threat not only to Nigeria and the region, but also to the continent as a whole,” AU head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement.
Boko Haram — which has been waging a brutal insurgency in Nigeria since 2009 — previously abducted foreigners in Nigeria and Cameroon, but all have since been released.
However, more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by the militants in April last year in one of the most shocking acts of their insurgency are still missing.
It would be recalled that Shekau had in a video posted on the ineternet on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the recent assault on Baga town, in Borno State .
In his 35-minute message, the Boko Haram’s leader said: “We will not stop. This is not much. You’ll see.”
According to the statement made public on Wednesday, “a special operation led by Cameroonian armed forces along with security services of friendly nations succeeded onTuesday night in freeing Nitsch Eberhard Robert, a German citizen abducted in Nigeria in July 2014 by the Boko Haram sect”.
Confirming the development. a spokesman for the German foreign ministry informed that Robert was now in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.
Nitsch Eberhard Robert
The release was announced a day after Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau mocked African leaders who were meeting in Niger to try to forge a united front against the Islamists.
“African kings… I challenge you to attack me now. I am ready,” Shekau had said in the video.
Meanwhile, as news of the German’s rescue emerged, the African Union announced it has asked the Security Council to approve a mandate for a regional force and a fund to help finance it.
“Boko Haram is a threat not only to Nigeria and the region, but also to the continent as a whole,” AU head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement.
Boko Haram — which has been waging a brutal insurgency in Nigeria since 2009 — previously abducted foreigners in Nigeria and Cameroon, but all have since been released.
However, more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by the militants in April last year in one of the most shocking acts of their insurgency are still missing.
It would be recalled that Shekau had in a video posted on the ineternet on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the recent assault on Baga town, in Borno State .
In his 35-minute message, the Boko Haram’s leader said: “We will not stop. This is not much. You’ll see.”
The Islamist militants group had reportedly kidnapped around 80 people in Cameroon on January 18, 2015.
According to Reuters, over half of those kidnapped in the cross-border attack were children.
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