France moves to free hostages in Cameroon

France says it is doing all it can to rescue 10 people, including six French sailors, kidnapped off the coast of Cameroon. Two militia groups from the Bakassi peninsula are threatening to kill the captives one by one if demands they have made are not met by Monday. A French Foreign Ministry spokesman says they are still trying to work out exactly what happened, who the kidnappers are and what demands are being made.

Gunmen in speedboats seized the workers about 180 kilometres from the main port of Doula, on board an oil vessel owned by the company Bourbon. Those kidnapped are reported to include six French, one Tunisian, two Cameroonians and a Senegalese worker. The vessel attacked is contracted by the French oil company Total.

Bakassi was handed over to Cameroon by Nigeria earlier this year after a decades-long border dispute.

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