AFRICA/CAMEROON - An alleged kidnapper of the Italian missionaries and Canadian nun has been arrested

Friday, 27 June 2014

Yaounde (Agenzia Fides) - The Cameroonian gendarmes arrested one of the alleged kidnappers of the two Italian priests and Canadian nun kidnapped on April 5 and released on June 1 (see Fides 05/04/2014; 05/05/2014; 02/06/2014). We are talking about a man of Cameroonian nationality, who was stopped by the military because they had received some complaints from the local population. The man is suspected of being part of a gang dedicated to the abduction of foreign nationals in the territory of Cameroon, probably in cahoots with elements of the Boko Haram Nigerian Islamist sect. The hostages, in fact, once kidnapped in Cameroon are transferred to Nigeria, where they are held by local accomplices.
In addition to the two Italian Fidei Donum priests of the diocese of Vicenza, Fr. Gianantonio Allegri and Fr. Giampaolo Marta, and Sister Gilberte Bussier of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Montreal, the gang is also suspected of having kidnapped Fr. Georges Vandenbeusch, a French Fidei Donum priest, who was also later released (see Fides 03/01/2014). In the area on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon 10 Chinese workers are still missing, of whom nothing is known. (LM.) (Agenzia Fides 27/06/2014)


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