Swiss tour operator, African Adventures, said a group of European tourists travelling in southwest Cameroon were not kidnapped.
African Adventures says its clients had simply been stopped by a group of armed individuals who carried out a check of their documents and vehicles.
The company says none of its group was subjected to violence and all are doing well.
This contradicts the government’s report that separatist militants had held them hostage but they were freed by the army’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion.