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Gunmen kidnapped 79 students in a region of English-speaking Cameroon on Monday, where separatists are carrying out an armed campaign for independence, security and government sources.
The kidnappings, the worst incident in 13 months of unrest, occurred just one day before longtime President Paul Biya was sworn in for a seventh term.
"Seventy-nine students and three supervisors" were seized, told AFP the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, also spokesman for the government.
A government official said the three people included the school principal, a teacher, and a driver.
A source close to the school said that the kidnapped students "are mostly boys".
A six-minute video watched by AFP, but which could not be confirmed immediately independently, showed 11 boys, apparently aged about 15, giving their identity and the name of the boy. school in English and adding that they had been kidnapped by the "Amba Boys" the name of the English-speaking separatists.
The first massive kidnapping in Cameroon follows two such incidents in neighboring Nigeria, where the Islamist group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the city of Chibok in the state of Borno in April 2014. .
Some 107 girls have been released or found since then, but the Islamist group kidnapped many schoolgirls from the neighboring state of Yobe in February of this year.
Students kidnapped Monday were enrolled in the Presbyterian secondary school of Bamenda, capital of the northwestern region of Cameroon, one of two regions affected by attacks by English-speaking militants who suffered brutal repression authorities.
"The search for the hostages was launched – every man was called," said a government source after a crisis meeting.
Elsewhere in the region, a senior local official has also been seized, said an AFP security officer.
The website of the school indicates that more than 700 students come from "all the religious and linguistic origins of Cameroon".
– Voltage –
The kidnappings coincide with an upsurge in political tensions in the predominantly French-speaking country.
It comes after the elections of October 7, during which 85-year-old Biya, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for 35 years, won 71.3 percent of the vote.
The polls were, however, tainted with allegations of widespread fraud, low voter turnout and violence.
About one-fifth of Cameroon's 22 million inhabitants are English-speaking – a minority whose presence dates back to the colonial period.
Cameroon, which was once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after the First World War.
The French colony gained independence in 1960 to become Cameroon. The following year, the south of Cameroon, led by the British, was merged, giving birth to the northwestern and southwestern regions.
But resentment of perceived discrimination by the Francophone majority, particularly in the areas of education and justice, has begun to intensify.
In 2016, claims for greater autonomy increased but were rejected by Biya.
– & # 39; Republic of Ambazonia & # 39; –
While the radicals were gaining ground, the Anglophone movement declared the creation of the "Republic of Ambazonia" in the North West and the neighboring Southwest region on October 1, 2017.
No country has recognized the self-declared state.
The separatists shot dead soldiers and policemen, boycotted and burned schools and attacked other alleged symbols of the Cameroonian state.
They declared a boycott of schools, saying that the francophone education system marginalized anglophone students.
At the beginning of the school year in September, several secondary schools were attacked, a school director was killed and a teacher severely maimed.
The authorities reacted with massive repression of the police and troops.
At least 400 civilians were killed this year and more than 175 members of the security forces, according to a report prepared by non-governmental organizations.
The conflict escalated in the north-west after several months of calm as fighting became more difficult in the south-west.
More than 300,000 people have fled the violence, many of them living day to day in the forests and others on the other side of the border with Nigeria.
In the October 7 elections, voter turnout was 5% in the North West and 15% in the South West – but Biya won more than two-thirds of the vote in both regions.
The abductions come four weeks after long-time leader Paul Biya was re-elected for a seventh term. Here, paramilitary policemen patrol at a rally preceding the vote in the North West Province.
Map of Cameroon showing the English-speaking regions where 79 students were kidnapped on Monday
