Cameroonian children kidnapped by separatists near Bamenda released, Presbyterian church official

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – A church official in Cameroon said the 79 students abducted by unidentified gunmen were released, but two of the three kidnapped staff members are still being held. Fonki Samuel Forba, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, said Wednesday that schoolchildren, who had been kidnapped Sunday night from a church school, had been left in a church near Bamenda, capital of the troubled northwestern Anglophone region.

He said that the students looked tired and that they had suffered during their captivity.

He begged the kidnappers to release the staff still in place. He had asked parents and guardians to bring all their children home. He said that the Presbyterian boarding school with 700 students was closed because of the security situation.

A video allegedly of kidnapped children was broadcast Sunday on social networks via men who call themselves Amba Boys, a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed separatists are trying to solve. establish in the northwestern and southwestern regions of Cameroon.

In the video, the kidnappers forced many of the young students to give their names and the names of their parents. The children said that they had been kidnapped Sunday night by the Amba boys and that they did not know where they were being held.

"We will not let you go until after the fight, you will now go to school here," say the men who identified themselves as Amba boys. Although the video can not be independently verified, parents reacted on social media stating that they recognized their children in the video.

Last year, hundreds of people were killed in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon, where violence between armed separatists and military forces has intensified since the crackdown by the government on protesters in the northern regions. West and Southwest, who claim to be marginalized by the English-speaking minority. Francophone Government.

Last week, separatist militants attacked workers in a state-run rubber plantation in southwestern Cameroon in a climate of repression. They were slicing their fingers because they had challenged the order not to approach farms.

An American missionary also died in the northwestern region around Bamenda after being hit in the head by fighting between armed separatists and soldiers.

The unrest in Cameroon comes as President Paul Biya, who has held office since 1982, easily won a seventh term last month in an election that, according to the United States, was marked by irregularities. The government abolished the limitation on the length of the presidential term several years ago, as part of a trend in Africa that has appalled many.