Three aid workers with French NGO Premiere Urgence Internationale (PUI) have been abducted in northern Cameroon, the humanitarian group said Thursday.

The kidnapped aid workers are all Cameroonian nationals based in the northern city of Maroua, in one of the NGO’s three branches in the country.

“Premiere Urgence Internationale confirms to its great regret that three people from its team have been kidnapped in the Far North region of Cameroon,” the group said in an email sent to AFP.

“Our teams were deployed in the Kossa area, in the village of Yeme, as part of food security activities and the fight against malnutrition” when the kidnapping took place, said Anne-Gaelle Bril, PUI’s geographical manager for Cameroon, who declined to reveal any further details about the circumstances of the incident, citing security reasons.

The organisation has run health, food and educational operations in Cameroon since 2008.

The Far North region, where the borders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon meet, has since 2009 been plagued by attacks by Boko Haram and its rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which is linked to Islamic State.

In February 2022, five members of the Doctors Without Borders organisation were freed in neighbouring Nigeria a month after their abduction.

Source: AFP