More than 80 people, mostly students, kidnapped in Cameroon’s Anglophone region
At least 80 people were kidnapped, mostly children, in the Cameroonian city of Bamenda on Monday government sources have confirmed.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings that targeted school children and teachers in the English-speaking region of Cameroon.
There have been ongoing clashes between government and separatists seeking to form a breakaway state.
Since October last year, armed separatists have been seeking the independence of Northwest and Southwest, the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
Xinhua reports that local authorities are holding a crisis meeting over the kidnapping at the private school named Presbyterian Secondary School (PSS) Nkwen in Bamenda.
Many people have fled Bamenda and other centres to seek refuge in more peaceful Francophone regions.
The government is expected to make a statement on the facts of the kidnapping, a source at the Ministry of Territorial Administration told Xinhua.
The armed separatists have ordered the closure of schools in the regions. Local authorities said the separatists have torched more than 100 schools that insist to operate.
