The Nigerian militant Islamic group Boko Haram said it has no links with the kidnappers of French tourists in Republic of Cameroon.

“We have nothing to do with the French people or their abductors,” Sheikh Ibn Abdulazeez, spokesman of the group, told reporters in the northern city of Maiduguri.

Seven French tourists including four children, were seized on Feb. 19 at the village of Dabanga in neighboring Cameroon. The tourists were taken across the border into neighboring Nigeria, said Eloi Gabriel Essoa, a local official in Cameroon.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gbenga Akingbule in Maiduguri at gakingbule@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at dmbachu@bloomberg.net