Kidnappers in Cameroon have reportedly lifted a death threat against six French hostages, seized from an oil tanker on Friday.

The leader of one of two militia groups involved in the kidnapping told French radio they had nothing to gain from killing them.

Gunmen in speedboats seized the French nationals and four Africans in a raid off the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula.

They had threatened to take their captives lives if the Cameroon government did not meet their demands, but what those demands were remained unclear.

The rebels clashed with Cameroonian troops in the run-up to Nigeria’s handover of Bakassi to Cameroon in August after a decades-long border dispute.

The Cameroon government says it will work to free the hostages but has not indicated whether it will negotiate with the militants.

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