Armed separatists kidnapped at least 79 students and three staff members from a Presbyterian school in a troubled English-speaking region of Cameroon, the governor said on Monday.
The students abducted on Sunday night were ages 11 to 17, and they were taken from Nkwen, a village near the regional capital, Bamenda, along with school staff that included the principal, North West Region Governor Deben Tchoffo said.
“It is rather unfortunate that this is happening, that 79 of our children and three of their staff can be picked up by terrorists,” Tchoffo said. “We have asked our military to do everything and bring back the kids alive.”
Photo: Reuters
A video purporting to show the kidnapped students was posted on social media from a group of men who call themselves “Amba boys,” a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed separatists want to establish in Cameroon’s Anglophone northwest and southwest regions.
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 said that they were taken late on Sunday by the armed men and did not know where they were being held.
The men in the video said that they would only release the students once the goal of creating a new state was achieved.
“We shall only release you after the struggle. You will be going to school now here,” the men said.
The video could not be independently verified, but parents said on social media that they recognized their children in the recording.
Fighting between the military and separatists increased after the government clamped down on peaceful demonstrations by English-speaking teachers and lawyers protesting what they said were their marginalization by Cameroon’s French-speaking majority.
Hundreds have been killed in the past year.
The separatists have vowed to destabilize the regions as part of the strategy for creating a breakaway state. They have attacked civilians who do not support their cause, including teachers who were killed for disobeying orders to keep schools closed.
There have been kidnappings at other schools, but the group taken on Sunday was the largest number abducted at one time in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.
The separatists also have set fire to at least 100 schools and driven out students and teachers from buildings taken over as training grounds.
“These appalling abductions show just how the general population is paying the highest price as violence escalates in the Anglophone region,” Amnesty International deputy regional director for West and Central Africa Samira Daoud said. “The abduction of schoolchildren and teachers can never be justified.”
Amnesty International expressed solidarity with the students’ families and demanded “that the Cameroon authorities do everything in their power to ensure all the pupils and school staff are freed unharmed.”
Last week, separatist militants attacked workers on a state-run rubber plantation in southwestern Cameroon, allegedly chopping off their fingers because the men defied an order to stay away from the farms.
A US missionary also died in the northwest region near its capital, Bamenda, when he was shot in the head amid fighting between separatists and soldiers.
The turmoil comes after Cameroonian President Paul Biya won a seventh term last month in an election that the US said was marked by irregularities.
Biya, who has been in office since 1982, is scheduled to be inaugurated today.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese