December 24, 2012 - 10:02 AMT
Nigerian Islamist group claim French national kidnap

Nigerian Islamist group Ansaru said on Sunday, Dec 23, it was behind the kidnap of a French national last week, citing France's ban on full-face veils and its support for military action in Mali, Reuters reported.

Ansaru sent a message to Nigerian reporters saying it was holding 63-year-old Francis Colump, who was taken on Dec 19 when around 30 gunmen attacked his residence in the remote northern town of Rimi, close to the Niger border.

The Nigerian police declined to comment on the claim but had already named Colump as the man abducted. He was working for French renewable energy firm Vergnet, which had been building Nigeria's first wind farm.