Update: French hostages still captive; release being negotiated

2/21/13 By Emile Picy and Nicholas Vinocur

Nigerian security forces have surrounded the kidnappers of a French family and are working for their release, reports say.

PARIS — Seven French hostages kidnapped in Cameroon are still captive as Nigerian security forces have surrounded the kidnappers and are negotiating for their release, a military source said.

The hostages, four children and three adults, were captured by Islamist militants this week while on a tourist excursion to the Waza national park near the Nigerian border with Cameroon.

It was the first case of foreigners being seized in the mainly Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony, but the region is considered within the operational sphere of Islamist sect Boko Haram and fellow Nigerian Islamist militants Ansaru.

Earlier an officer from Cameroon's army was quoted as saying "the hostages are safe and sound and are in the hands of Nigerian authorities," according to BFMTV.

France's minister for veterans' affairs, who told parliament Thursday that seven hostages abducted from Cameroon had been released, said minutes later there was no official confirmation that they had been freed.

Additional reporting by Joe Brock in Abuja

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