A group of armed men have kidnapped five staff members working for Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, in northern Cameroon.

According to a statement issued by the medical charity on Thursday night, armed men broke into the MSF base in Fotokol, situated in the remote northern border area with neighboring Nigeria.

Motive for kidnapping unknown

"Five members of our team were taken away after the break-in. Neither the identity nor the motives of the perpetrators are known at this time," MSF told DW in an emailed response.

The organization said that its teams were "mobilized to support our five colleagues."

News agency AFP cited a local administrative official as saying that three of the aid workers are from Chad, one is from Senegal, and the fifth is French-Ivorian.

The source also said two Cameroonian security guards were among those kidnapped and that the army had launched a search for the missing members of staff.

Cameroon's troubled north

Though the identity of the kidnappers remains unknown, there have been a number of attacks targeting civilians and soldiers by Islamist groups.

Boko Haram and the so-called Islamic State West Africa Province are known to launch attacks in the area including in the nearby Lake Chad region.

In September 2019, a suspected Boko Haram attack near Fotoko, claimed the lives of six Cameroonian soldiers.

In August 2021, 26 Chadian soldiers were killed while on patrol in neighboring Chad.

The violence has spawned a regional humanitarian crisis, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and dispersed in neighboring countries.

MSF has been helping to assist displaced people and refugees, providing treatment to tens of thousands of people.

Coupled with the Islamist insurgency, Cameroon is also trying to tackle militants from the country's Anglophone minority who are fighting for the establishment of  a separate state.

MSF also told DW that it would only be releasing limited information on the situation at this time. 

kb/msh (AFP, Reuters)