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(YAOUNDE, Cameroon) – Armed separatists have kidnapped at least 79 students and three staff members from a Presbyterian school in an English-speaking region of Cameroon in trouble, the governor said on Monday.
North West governor Deben Tchoffo said the students abducted Sunday night were between 11 and 17 years old and that they were taken from Nkwen, a village near the regional capital, Bamenda, with staff of the school, including the main one.
"It is rather unfortunate that this is happening, that 79 of our children and three of their staff can be taken back by terrorists," Tchoffo said. "We asked our military to do everything and bring the children back alive."
A video claiming to show the kidnapped students was posted on social media by a group of men who call themselves "Amba boys," a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed separatists want to establish in the English-speaking regions of northwestern and southwestern Cameroon.
In the video, men who identified themselves as the kidnappers forced several boys to give their names and those of their parents. The boys also reported being taken away by gunmen late Sunday and did not know where they were being held.
The men in the video stated that they would only release students once the goal of creating a new state achieved.
"We will not let you go until after the fight. You will go to school now here, "said the men. The video could not be verified independently, but the parents said on their social networks recognize their children in the recording.
Fighting between military and separatists intensified after the government cracked down on peaceful protests by English teachers and lawyers protesting what they said was their marginalization by Cameroon's French-speaking majority.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the last year.
The separatists promised to destabilize the regions as part of the strategy to create a separatist state. They attacked civilians who do not support their cause, including teachers who were killed for disobeying orders to keep schools closed.
Kidnappings took place in other schools, but Sunday's group was the largest number of kidnappings at once in English-speaking areas of Cameroon. The separatists also set fire to at least 100 schools and chased students and teachers out of the buildings being looked after for training.
"These appalling kidnappings show how much the general population is paying the highest price as violence intensifies in the English-speaking region," said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for HIV / AIDS. 39, West and Central Africa. "The kidnapping of schoolchildren and teachers can never be justified."
Amnesty International has expressed its solidarity with the students' families and demanded "that the Cameroonian authorities do everything in their power to guarantee the release of all students and school staff."
Last week, separatist militants attacked workers in a state-run rubber plantation in southwestern Cameroon, which reportedly cut off their fingers because they had challenged the government. order not to approach farms.
An American missionary also died in the northwestern region, near his capital, Bamenda, when he was hit in the head by a clash between separatists and soldiers.
The unrest in Cameroon comes after President Paul Biya won a seventh term last month in an election that, according to the United States, was marked by irregularities. Biya, in office since 1982, is to be inaugurated Tuesday.
