PARIS Seven French and three African oil workers taken hostage from a tugboat off the coast of Cameroon last month were freed Tuesday.
French officials credited help from Nigerian authorities and Cameroon President Paul Biya for the oil workers release.
President Nicolas Sarkozys office said he expressed his relief at the news and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner hailed the happy ending to the incident.
This incident reminds us of the urgent necessity for the international community to fight effectively against maritime piracy, Kouchner said.
The 10 hostages, including two Cameroon citizens and one Tunisian, were in good health, according to Christa Roqueblave, a spokeswoman for the maritime services company Bourbon, owner of the Bourbon Sagitta tugboat.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said the hostages were not freed by a military operation since their captors seized them for mostly political not financial motives.
The French state did not pay a ransom, he said. There were talks between authorities in Cameroon and the hostage-takers.
A Cameroon militia group took the oil workers hostage Oct. 31 off the West African nations coast, and threatened to kill them if demands for autonomy talks with the government were not met.
Days after the hostage-taking, a leader of the militia said one of the hostages was killed in a failed rescue attempt by Nigerian marines, an allegation later denied by French officials.
Regional states know that the alternative to talks — a fully fledged war on both fronts — will bring immeasurable destruction to the Gulf, the Red Sea and the surrounding areas.
