The French foreign ministry has said that a French priest has been kidnapped in northern Cameroon close to the border with Nigeria, the.

Officials of the ministry who gave the name of  priest as Georges Vandenbeusch noted that he was seized in the early hours of Thursday in Koza, about 30km (19 miles) from the border

They however noted that they are already working with the Cameroonian authorities to secure his release.

France says it had earlier warned people that the area was dangerous because the Nigerian Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, is known to operate in the area, but that "Father Georges chose to remain in his parish to carry out his work".

Earlier this year, seven members of a French family - four of them children - were abducted by Islamist militants and held hostage for two months.

The Moulin-Fournier family was first abducted near Cameroon's northern Waza National Park, which lies just a few kilometres from the Nigerian border, in February.