Cameroon frees 16 hostages abducted by CAR rebels

Cameroon‘s military freed 15 of its nationals, along with a Polish priest, being held as hostages after being abducted by rebels from the Central African Republic, the government said Wednesday.

The Cameroonians were kidnapped by the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC) near the country‘s eastern border to CAR during two separate attacks on October 14 and 16, according to the secretary general at the presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

Father Mateusz Dziedzic, who belongs to the diocese of Tarnow in the town of Baboua, on the Central African side of the border, had been kidnapped on October 12.

The military carried out a “special operation that led to the liberation of the hostages,” President Paul Biya said in a statement, without providing further details about the rescue operation.

The FDPC is demanding the release of their leader, Abdoulaye Miskine, who was arrested in the capital, Yaounde, in mid-September.

Miskine was a close ally of the largely Muslim Seleka rebel group, which overthrew CAR president Francois Bozize, a Christian, in March 2013, throwing the country into turmoil.

Thousands of people have been killed in CAR and about a million displaced due to the ethno-religious conflict.