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Cameroon announced Saturday that 27 hostages — including 10 Chinese construction workers and the wife of a deputy prime minister— suspected of being captured by the militant group Boko Haram have been released.The former hostages arrived in Yaoundé, Cameroon's capital, after being flown in from the country's far northern tip, near where they were captured in May and July this year, government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary told Reuters.Bakary said all 27 people are in currently recuperating in a hospital."You can imagine that after the ordeal they are very happy to be released and very relieved. But they are very weak. They are in very poor physical condition," he said.Bakary also confirmed that the government believes they were taken by Boko Haram, although the group has yet to claim responsibility for the kidnappings.Graphic video implicates Nigerian military in war crimes while battling Boko Haram. Read more here.The Chinese road construction workers were abducted in May near the northern town of Waza, located 12 miles near the Nigeran border, said a statement from the President Paul Biya's office read on the radio Saturday.The other 17 were seized in July when 200 militants stormed and attacked vice prime minister Amadou Ali's residence in the town of Kolofata. Though Ali was away at the time, the fighters took his wife, Francoise Agnes Moukouri, killed at least five people, and set the residence on fire, according to the Associated Press.The President's statement confirmed that the freed hostages are now "safe and sound," but did not elaborate on details of the negotiations for their release. Cameroon claims it does not pay ransoms to kidnappers.Five African countries declare 'war' against Boko Haram. Read more here.Boko Haram, which roughly translates to "western education is a sin" in the local Hausa language, has been responsible for thousands of deaths and kidnappings during its five year-long campaign to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria's northeast.More than 1,500 people, half of them civilians, were killed in the first three months of this year alone, according to an Amnesty International report released in March. The deaths were caused by a mixture of militant violence, reprisal attacks and the Nigerian government's actions, Amnesty said. Thousands more residents have been displaced after fleeing the area in the face of escalating violence.Although Boko Haram's activities have been primarily centered in Nigera's northeast where the group is based, there have been increasing reports of raids on Cameroonian towns along the porous border, especially since the Cameroon government joined a regional alliance against the group and stepped up efforts to the battle the growing insurgency.Increased cooperation between African neighbors — including Niger, Benin, and Chad — was initiated this year after Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria's northeastern Borno State.Many of the girls, a mixture of Christian and Muslim, remain missing amid widespread reports that some have been sold as child brides or slaves for the equivalent of $12, while others have been forced to convert to Islam and forced to marry their captors.#BringBackOurGirls is not going to stop Boko Haram. Read more here.Follow Liz Fields on Twitter: @lianzifieldsPhoto via Flickr
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