Cameroon kidnapped: 170 students released

Cameroonian students and school staff who were kidnapped on Saturday were released, the Kumbo bishop told the BBC.

A total of 176 people, mostly students, were abducted by unidentified gunmen at St. Augustine College in Kumbo, North West Cameroon.

They were released Sunday after negotiations.

This is the largest school kidnapping in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon since the beginning of the separatist unrest in 2017.

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The gunmen entered Saturday morning campus of St. Augustine College Nso and seized 170 students, two security guards, a teacher and three of his children, said the Diocesan Director of Communication in a statement.

Reverend Elvis Nsaikila added that the residential school authorities had asked parents and guardians to bring their children home as soon as possible, "the school having been closed".

The Bishop of Kumbo, George Nkuo, confirmed to BBC Africa that church officials had negotiated the release of the hostages on the condition that the school closes its doors.

"If the army had intervened, there would have been deaths," he said.

Saturday's school attack was not the first in the troubled northwestern English-speaking region.

A similar incident occurred last November at the Bamenda Regional Headquarters, where more than 80 people, including the principal, a teacher, a driver and 79 students, were kidnapped at Nkwen Presbyterian High School. .

The kidnapping of schoolchildren and school staff marked the escalating crisis that lasted two years and hit the two English-speaking regions of the Northwest and Southwest.

Militias wishing to establish an independent state called Ambazonia began appearing in 2017 after security forces reacted violently to protests demanding that English be used in clbadrooms and movie theaters. hearing of the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The country is dominated by its French-speaking majority.

The International Crisis Group thinks there are about 10 armed separatist groups, taking control of a "significant proportion of rural areas and main roads" in the North West and South West regions .