"A special operation led by Cameroonian armed forces along with security services of friendly nations succeeded in freeing Nitsch Eberhard Robert, a German citizen abducted in Nigeria in July 2014 by the Boko Haram sect," the Cameroon presidency said in a statement.A spokesman for the German foreign ministry confirmed the man's release, adding that he was now in Cameroon's capital Yaounde.
Boko
Haram claimed in an October 2014 video it had captured a German man,
who local residents said was a teacher at a government-run technical
training centre.
Analysts
say the Islamists have increasingly sought to fund their brutal six-year
insurgency through ransom kidnappings, targeting primarily wealthy
Nigerians, but also foreigners.
No further details were immediately available about the Cameroon raid, including where it took place.
The
hostage release was announced a day after Boko Haram's leader Abubakar
Shekau mocked African leaders meeting in Niger to try to forge a united
front against the Islamists.
"African kings... I challenge you to attack me now. I am ready."Boko Haram previously abducted foreigners in Nigeria and Cameroon, but all have since been released. A French family was believed to have been freed in exchange for a multi-million dollar ransom in 2013.
However, more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by the militants in April last year in one of the most shocking acts of their insurgency are still missing.
As news of the German's rescue emerged, the African Union announced it has asked the Security Council to approve a mandate for a regional force and a fund to help finance it.
"Boko Haram is a threat not only to Nigeria and the region, but also to the continent as a whole," AU head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement.Nigeria's army has come under fire repeatedly for failing to crush the militants, whose insurgency has left 13,000 people dead and forced 1.5 million from their homes.Boko Haram has also been stepping up attacks in Nigeria and neighbouring Cameroon, where it abducted dozens of people Sunday.
Niger said on Wednesday that the headquarters of the regional African force set up to fight Boko Haram will now be transferred to Chad after its base in the Nigerian border town of Baga was overrun earlier this month by the Islamist militants.
