mass kidnapping in a school in English-speaking area

Seventy-nine students were kidnapped Monday (November 5th), on the eve of Cameroonian President Paul Biya's swearing in Bamenda, capital of the North West region. This is the largest kidnapping in this English-speaking area since the beginning of the conflict with armed separatists.

In addition to students, the principal of Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, a teacher and a driver were also kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, a government source told AFP. "The search for the hostages has been launched, the mobilization is total"added the source, speaking at the end of a crisis meeting.

The abduction of students was confirmed to AFP by a source close to the school and a safe source. "The establishment is squared by the security forces. We do not have access to it », said the source close to the establishment.

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A school director murdered

In the two English-speaking regions of the North-West and South-West, an unprecedented socio-political crisis took place at the end of 2016. At the end of 2017, it turned into an armed conflict. Clashes between the army and separatists, grouped in scattered groups in the equatorial forest, have occurred there almost every day for several months.

The separatists have declared a boycott of schools, believing that the French school system marginalizes English-speaking students. Attacks by armed groups on schools have been numerous since the beginning of the conflict. In mid-October, six students were kidnapped in a high school attack in Bamenda, according to concordant sources – authorities denied. On the day of school, in early September, a school director was murdered, a teacher mutilated and several schools attacked.

The armed conflict intensified in the northwestern region after several months of calm, with clashes concentrated in the southwestern region during the summer. On 30 October, an American missionary was shot dead in his vehicle in Bambui, a suburb of Bamenda. The reasons for his badbadination remain unknown, but the state has accused 'Terrorists' to be at the origin of his death, while Washington spoke of "Cross shots".

More than 300,000 people fled

More than 175 members of the Cameroonian Defense and Security Forces have lost their lives in the conflict, as well as more than 400 civilians, according to NGOs. In the area, more than 300,000 people have fled the violence, mostly in the bush and in major cities in neighboring areas, and some in neighboring Nigeria.

President Paul Biya, 85, in power since 1982, was re-elected for a seventh term on October 7, with 71.28% of the vote. He must take an oath Tuesday. In the two English-speaking regions, the participation rate in the presidential election was very low (5% in the North-West and 15% in the South-West), but Paul Biya obtained in each of them more than two-thirds of the votes cast. .

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