Students kidnapped in Cameroon are released but questions remain: NPR

Nearly 80 children kidnapped by armed assailants in a school in northwestern Cameroon were released by their captors and reunited with their parents.

But we still do not know who the kidnappers are and why the children were taken away. The government has blamed the kidnappings on the separatists, who in turn say the government is responsible.

The students, who were kidnapped Sunday night at a Presbyterian school in Bamenda, in the north-west of the country, were released at another school 20 km away. The Guardian reports, noting that it is also difficult to know how they were transported given the curfew that was in effect at night.

A director and a teacher who were abducted with the children are still in detention, Reuters reported.

"They look tired and psychologically tortured," the Associated Press Fonki Samuel Forba, a moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, told The Associated Press.

Forba asked the parents of the residential school children to bring them home, as their safety could not be guaranteed.

"It is unfortunate that we had to close the school and send 700 children home," he told the AP. "Their security is not ensured by the state and armed groups attack and kidnap them permanently".

The school was the victim of a separate kidnapping on October 31, in which 11 students were taken away and released, according to the same source. guardian.

Cameroon has a majority of French speakers, with a significant minority of English speakers in the western part of the country. Originally colonized by Germany, the country was divided into two parts: English and French after the First World War. French and English are the official languages ​​of Cameroon.

Tension has been rising in the country since the end of 2016, when the English-speaking minority initially protested against perceived marginalization and turned into a secessionist movement in northwestern and southwestern Cameroon, in opposition to the government dominated by Francophones.

Hundreds of people were killed in the country when the separatist movement took hold and the government put an end to its efforts to secede.

Paul Biya, the country's 85-year-old French president, was inaugurated Tuesday for his seventh term. In a speech, he pledged to intensify decentralization: "Steps will be taken as soon as possible to expand the powers of local authorities to empower them to strengthen their autonomy." Bilingualism and multiculturalism will continue to be encouraged. by the commission until that end. "

Biya asked the inhabitants of the English-speaking regions "to give all possible support to the authorities' efforts to restore peace, they know better than anyone what their life would be under the yoke of". extremists who have spread terror and desolation to their regions for a few months now. "

On Tuesday, the US State Department condemned the kidnapping and expressed concern over what he called a "booming Anglophone crisis."

"We call for the immediate cessation of indiscriminate attacks against civilians and house fires by Cameroonian government forces as well as attacks by English-speaking separatists against the security forces and civilians," the department said. in a statement by spokeswoman Heather Nauert. "The systematic intimidation based on ethnicity and religion, especially in Yaoundé and Douala, must stop."

An American missionary was killed in his car in Bamenda last week when he was apparently caught in the crossfire.

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR Africa correspondent, contributed to this report.