Maiduguri — The seven members of a French family abducted in northern Cameroon were, yesterday, located between Dikwa and Ngala Local Government Areas of Borno State.

Dikwa is about 80 kilometres away from Maiduguri, the state capital, while Ngala which is a border town between Nigeria and CameroonRepublic is about 130 kilometres away from Maiduguri.

This came as another Improvised Explosive Devise, IED, which targeted the Joint Military Task Force, JTF, patrol van exploded at the Cutoms Area of Maiduguri yesterday, killing three people.

This was barely 24 hours after three other people, including the bomber, a woman and her child died following an explosion from an IED thrown at the JTF at the Post Office area, Tuesday.

It was learnt that unknown people threw the IED towards the JTF patrol vehicle along the Main Gamboru- Customs road which critically injured the occupants, and also damaged the vehicle due to the devastating effect of the blast.

However, although there was no official confirmation of this development, reliable sources said the authorities were making efforts to secure the release of abducted family members from their captors.

A military source who spoke in Maiduguri denied any knowledge of the release of the seven family members as rumoured yesterday.

3 killed in gun duel

Meanwhile, yesterday's blast took place at about 2p.m, leading to sporadic exchange of gunfire between members of the Boko Haram sect and the JTF operatives, a situation which led to the killing of three innocent civilians.

Some shops, buildings and a private fuel station were also razed in the process.

A hospital source at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, UMTH, said that some JTF operatives were brought in to the Accident and Emergency Unit because they were critically injured in the blast.