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Louis Marie Begne, spokesman for the northwestern government of Cameroon, said the men had entered the Presbyterian secondary school in Bamenda, submerged the guard and forced him to take them to the police. sleeping children.
The men took 79 boys and girls and tried to go with the school minibus. The driver claimed that the vehicle was down, so the men took off with the children on foot.
Begne said that a crisis meeting had been held Monday morning and that the army, the police and the Cameroonian military police were looking for children.
The BIR – the rapid intervention battalion, an elite military unit – is also involved and helicopters are in the air looking for the youngest.
It is likely that the children were divided into groups, said Begne.
Begne added that the school director was kidnapped – and released – just three days ago and was told not to return to school.
Benge was not able to tell who the kidnappers were and did not rule out the secessionists.
English-speaking separatist fighters calling for the independence of Cameroon's largely French-speaking government have been accused of kidnapping students in the north and south-west regions of Cameroon.
The hostages were "tortured and seriously injured" by their captors before their release, the human rights group said.
Separatist fighters also launched attacks on a group of soldiers in Buea town, southwest Cameroon, the same month, the human rights organization said.
Violence often erupts in the unstable English-speaking provinces of Cameroon, whose population represents 20% of the country's population. Residents of these provinces complain that the government, which is predominantly francophone, has marginalized them.
