A VIDEO of a French family of seven kidnapped last month in Cameroon and which also purported to show the acclaimed leader Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, was yesterday obtained by AFP.
The AFP had earlier in the week reported the audio clips.
In the video, Shekau and the seven French hostages were not together in the same location.
Shekau, who spoke in Arabic in the nearly 11-minute video, said the French tourists were abducted because of the arrest of Boko Haram members and their family members in Nigeria and Cameroon.
The screen is split during part of the time he speaks, with one half showing him and the other a photograph of the family.
“God sent us the French hostages …,” he said in what Shekau described as a message to the presidents of Nigeria, Cameroon and France.
“The proof that we are holding them is that our brothers and sisters were captured in Nigeria and Cameroon … 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 children, his wife and his brother, all seven standing in front of what appears to be a tarpaulin.
A source close to the family on Monday confirmed that the man speaking was indeed the father, Tanguy Moulin-Fournier.
The family were on holiday in the region around Cameroon’s WazaNational Park when they were kidnapped on February 19.
The father says in the video that they were kidnapped 25 days ago.
Cameroon has said the victims were taken over the border into restive northeastern Nigeria after their abduction, though their precise whereabouts are unknown.
Boko Haram is believed to include a number of factions with various interests and shifting demands.
The group has in the past called for the creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria.
Violence linked to the group’s insurgency in northern and central Nigeria, including killings by the security forces, has left some 3,000 people dead since 2009.