{{A video surfaced Monday showing a man who appeared to be a French hostage held by Islamic extremists with six other family members kidnapped on Feb. 19 in northern Cameroon.}}
The video’s audio airs a man’s voice that identifies himself as Tanguy Moulin-Fournier.
He says that his family is being held by the Islamic radical sect known as Boko Haram which wants all its members freed, especially women and children held in Nigerian and Cameroonian custody.
Boko Haram has been waging a campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria’s north.
They are held responsible for more than 790 deaths last year alone, and dozens more since the beginning of this year.
On Monday bombings in two northern cities killed at least 17 people.
Moulin-Fournier said his family is not doing well in captivity.
“We lose force (strength) every day and start to be sick; we will not stay very long like this,” Moulin-Fournier says in the recording.
The family has been held hostage for 25 days, he says in a shaky voice, giving the only date indication on the recording.
The family comprising of Tanguy, his brother, his wife and their four children was kidnapped outside a national park in Cameroon’s Far North region.
The video was not immediately available, but a media source who viewed it says it shows the Moulin-Fournier family, including the four children.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.
“They will not be able to get the seven hostages unless they free our members,” one of the family’s captors says in the recording, speaking in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s north.
This is the second video showing the Moulin-Fournier family since another video was posted on YouTube three weeks ago.
{Associated Press}
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