Five MSF workers kidnapped a month ago in Nigeria freed
The MSF workers were kidnapped on the night of February 24-25 in Fotokol, near the Nigerian border, a region where jihadist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) regularly attack civilians and soldiers.
Jihadists regularly carry out attacks against the military and civilians in the four countries in this area.
Iswap has consolidated its hold on these territories in recent months in the region after the death of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, infighting between the two rival groups. The activities of the two jihadist groups led the countries in the area to form a joint military force, the Mixed Multinational Force (MMF), which includes soldiers from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger. By August 2021, at least 26 Chadian soldiers had been killed in the Lake Chad region near the border with Cameroon by jihadists.
"We are happy to find our colleagues safe and sound," said Stephen Cornish, MSF's executive director.
Iswap, meanwhile, emerged in 2016 from a split in Boko Haram, for which it blames the killing of Muslim civilians, among other things.
In September 2019, six Cameroonian soldiers had been killed near Fotokol after Boko Haram attacked a military post.
Cameroonian authorities refer indiscriminately to Boko Haram as the Nigerian group of the same name or its breakaway Iswap branch, which has pledged allegiance to the (Islamic Emirates (EI). Six soldiers of the MMF, four Nigerians, and two Nigerians died in December 2021 in the Lake Chad Basin during a sweep that also left 22 jihadists dead, according to authorities. These attacks have increased in recent months as armed groups take advantage of their knowledge of the swampy terrain.
"There is no evidence to link this act to Boko Haram attacks. Fotokol is located near Lake Chad, a vast body of water and swampland that extends its shores into four countries: The former hostages have been "taken to a safe place," the NGO said in an email sent to AFP on Thursday, without revealing the circumstances of their release.