A new video has been released by the Boko Haram Islamist sect, showing its leader, Abubakar Shekau and the French family of seven abducted last month in Northern Cameroun.
The video, which was obtained by the international news agency, Agence France Presse, AFP, does not however show Shekau and the French hostages in the same location.
The audio clips had earlier in the week been reported by AFP.
Shekau, who spoke in Arabic in the nearly 11-minute video said the French family was abducted because of the arrest of Boko Haram members and their families in Nigeria and Cameroun.
The screen was split while he spoke, showing him on one half and the French family in the other half.
In what he described as a message to the Presidents of Nigeria, Cameroun and France, Shekau said, “God sent us the French hostages….The proof that we are holding them is that our brothers and sisters were captured in Cameroun…We seek no money but the release of our brothers.”
The father of the French family, which includes four children, the couple and an uncle, later reads a statement from a piece of paper.
He is surrounded by his wife, children and brother, all seven of them standing in front of what appears to be a tarpaulin.
A source close to the family confirmed on Monday that the man speaking was indeed the father, Tanguy Moulin-Fournier.
The family were abducted on the 19th of February while on holiday at the Waza National Park in Northern Cameroun.
The father in the video says they were abducted 25 days ago.
Cameroun had said that the hostages were taken over the border into the restive North-Eastern Nigeria, although their precise location was not known.
Boko Haram is believed to be composed of several factions with various interests and shifting demands.
The group has in the past called for the creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria.
They have been blamed for about 3,000 deaths in Northern and Central Nigeria since the start of the insurgency in 2009.
The video:
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