{"id":55394,"date":"2014-10-11T10:25:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T10:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=55394"},"modified":"2014-10-11T10:25:08","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T10:25:08","slug":"cameroon-says-27-boko-haram-hostages-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=55394","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon says 27 Boko Haram hostages released"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\">Cameroon&#8217;s president has said that 27 hostages, including 10 Chinese workers, held by suspected Boko Haram militants have been released.<\/p>\n<p>Also freed was the wife of Cameroon&#8217;s Vice-Prime Minister Amadou Ali.<\/p>\n<p>President Paul Biya said that the hostages, seized in May and July close to the Nigeria border, were safe.<\/p>\n<p>Boko Haram is seeking to establish an Islamist state in Nigeria but its fighters often cross the long and porous border with Cameroon.<\/p>\n<p>Many Nigerian civilians in border towns have fled to Cameroon to escape Boko Haram attacks, which have been stepped up in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger agreed to form a 2,800-strong regional force to tackle Boko Haram militants.<\/p>\n<p>Cameroon has reinforced its troops in its northern regions.<\/p>\n<p>Girls&#8217; abduction<\/p>\n<p>President Biya said in a statement on state radio: &#8220;The 27 hostages kidnapped on May 16, 2014, at Waza and on July 27, 2014, at Kolofata were given this night to Cameroonian authorities.<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Map\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/78152000\/jpg\/_78152294_cameroonwaza4641014.jpg\" width=\"464\" height=\"261\" \/><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Ten Chinese, the wife of the Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali, the Lamido (a local religious leader) of Kolofata, and the members of their families kidnapped with them are safe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No details were given on the circumstances of the release or whether a ransom was paid.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Cameroon said Mr Ali&#8217;s wife and maid were abducted in &#8220;a savage attack&#8221; on his home in Kolofata by Boko Haram militants.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ali managed to escape to a neighbouring town.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts to step up regional co-operation gained momentum after Boko Haram caused an international outcry by abducting more than 200 girls from a boarding school in north-eastern Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>The girls are thought to be held in the vast Sambisa forest, along Nigeria&#8217;s border with Cameroon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cameroon&#8217;s president has said that 27 hostages, including 10 Chinese workers, held by suspected Boko Haram militants have been released. Also freed was the wife of Cameroon&#8217;s Vice-Prime Minister Amadou Ali. President Paul Biya said that the hostages, seized in May and July close to the Nigeria border, were safe. Boko Haram is seeking to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":55395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-55394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}