Cameroon rebels free 10 hostages: FranceRebels in Cameroon who kidnapped 10 mostly French oil workers from a ship off the west African West Africa A region of western Africa between the Sahara Desert and the Gulf of Guinea. It was largely controlled by colonial powers until the 20th century. West African adj. & n. country's coast have released them, the French foreign minister said Tuesday. "I express my gratitude to the Cameroonian authorities and in particular to President Paul Biya whose constant mobilisation enabled the liberation of the 10 hostages," Bernard Kouchner said in a statement. "This event reminds us of the urgent necessity for the international community to fight against maritime piracy
Maritime piracy, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982, consists of any criminal acts of violence, ," he said, adding that officials were working to get the released French nationals back home as soon as possible. He gave no details of how the hostages were released or where. The seven French nationals, one Tunisian and two Cameroonians, who were working for French oil company Bourbon, were taken from a ship off the coast of the Bakassi region on October 31. A group calling itself the Bakassi Freedom Fighters (BFF BFF Best Friends Forever (chat) BFF Best Foot Forward BFF Ben Folds Five (band) BFF Born Free Foundation BFF Binary File Format BFF Boston Film Festival BFF Biotech Finance Forum ) which is opposed to Cameroon's recent takeover of the Bakassi Peninsula from Nigeria, said it had captured them. It threatened to kill them one by one unless the Cameroonian government agreed to reopen talks on the status of the oil-rich region that was ceded in August after a 15-year dispute settled under international arbitration International arbitration is the established method today for resolving disputes between parties to international commercial agreements. As with arbitration generally, it is a creature of contract, i.e. . The peninsula is a 1,000-square-kilometre (400-square-mile) strip of coastal swamp jutting jut v. jut·ted, jut·ting, juts v.intr. To extend outward or upward beyond the limits of the main body; project: out from the Cameroon-Nigeria border into the oil- and fish-rich waters of the Gulf of Guinea Noun 1. Gulf of Guinea - a gulf off the southwest coast of Africa Bioko - an island in the Gulf of Guinea that is part of Equatorial Guinea Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa . 
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